THE  SEVEN  DARLINGS 


OF  CALIF.  LIBRA*?,  MS  AKGELES 


THE 
SEVEN  DARLINGS 


BY 
GOUVERNEUR  MORRIS 


ILLUSTRATED    BY 

HOWARD  CHANDLER  CHRISTY 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK::::::::::::::::::::::i9i9 


COPYRIGHT,  igis,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


TO 
HOPE  DAVIS 


2131221 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


"If  there's  any  voting,"  said  Phyllis,  "I  give  my  proxy 

to  Gay" Frontispiece 


FACING    PAGE 


"They're  as  like  as  Lee  and  me,"  said  Gay     ....      70 

"I  said  to  myself:   'The  Inn  is  no  place  for  attractive 

scalawags'" 98 

Phyllis  squeaked  like  a  mouse,  threw  her  weight  to  one 

side,  and  the  boat  quietly  upset       118 

"'Why   do   you    look    at    that    mountain?'   I   said. 

'Because  it's  blue,  too,' said  she" 150 

"I  read  here,"  she  said,  "with  regret,  that  you  are  an 

outrageous  flirt" 192 

"Do  you  usually  manage  to  ?"  asked  Maud,  very  much 

puzzled 208 

"And  now  what?"  asked  Colonel  Meredith     ....    218 

She  felt  like  Cinderella.     Nobody  had  asked  her  to  go 

anywhere  or  do  anything 238 

Eve  was  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  pool  from  where  she 

had  left  her  clothes 244 

vii 


Illustrations 

FACING  PACE 

"I  don't  want  you  to  see  me,  if  you  don't  mind.  I  don't 
want  you  to  know  who  I  am.  But  I'm  the  grate- 
fulest  girl  that  ever  lived" 252 

"He's  paddling  as  if  he  expected  to  cross  a  hundred 

yards  of  water  in  a  second  " 266 

They  pushed  open  a  swinging  door  and  entered  the 

back  room 290 

"Lee!"   exclaimed  Phyllis,   "married!     Why,  they're 

nothing  but  children  !"       304 


THE  SEVEN  DARLINGS 


THE  SEVEN  DARLINGS 

i 

SIX  of  the  Darlings  were  girls.  The  seventh 
was  a  young  man  who  looked  like  Galahad 
and  took  exquisite  photographs.  Their  father 
had  died  within  the  month,  and  Mr.  Gilpin,  the 
lawyer,  had  just  faced  them,  in  family  assembled, 
with  the  lamentable  fact  that  they,  who  had  been 
so  very,  very  rich,  were  now  astonishingly  poor. 

"My  dears,"  he  said,  "your  poor  father  made 
a  dreadful  botch  of  his  affairs.  I  cannot  under- 
stand how  some  men " 

"Please!"  said  Mary,  who  was  the  oldest. 
"  It  can't  be  any  satisfaction  to  know  why  we  are 
poor.  Tell  us  just  how  poor  we  are,  and  we'll 
make  •  the  best  of  it.  I  understand  that  The 
Camp  isn't  involved  in  the  general  wreck." 

"It  isn't,"  said  Mr.  Gilpin,  "but  you  will 
have  to  sell  it,  or  at  least,  rent  it.  Outside  The 
Camp,  when  all  the  estate  debts  are  paid,  there 
will  be  thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars  to  be  di- 
vided among  you." 

i 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"In  other  words — nothing"  said  Mary;  "I 
have  known  my  father  to  spend  more  in  a  month." 

"Income —  "  began  Mr.  Gilpin. 

"Dear  Mr.  Gilpin,"  said  Gay,  who  was  the 
youngest  by  twenty  minutes;  "don't." 

"Forty  thousand  dollars,"  said  Mary,  "at 
four  per  cent  is  sixteen  hundred.  Sixteen  hun- 
dred divided  by  seven  is  how  much  ? " 

"Nothing,"  said  Gay  promptly.  And  all  the 
family  laughed,  except  Arthur,  who  was  trying 
to  balance  a  quill  pen  on  his  thumb. 

"I  might,"  said  Mr.  Gilpin  helplessly,  "be 
able  to  get  you  five  per  cent  or  even  five  and  a 
half." 

"You  forget,"  said  Maud,  the  second  in  age, 
and  by  some  thought  the  first  in  beauty,  "that 
we  are  father's  children.  Do  you  think  he  ever 
troubled  his  head  about  five  and  a  half  per  cent, 
or  even,"  she  finished  mischievously,  "six?" 

Arthur,  having  succeeded  in  balancing  the 
quill  for  a  few  moments,  laid  it  down  and  entered 
the  discussion. 

"What  has  been  decided?"  he  asked.  His 
voice  was  very  gentle  and  uninterested. 

"It's  an  awful  pity  mamma  isn't  in  a  position 
to  help  us,"  said  Eve. 

Eve  was  the  third.     After  her,  Arthur  had  been 

2 


The  Seven  Darlings 

born;  and  then,  all  on  a  bright  summer's  morn- 
ing, the  triplets,  Lee,  Phyllis,  and  Gay. 

"That  old  scalawag  mamma  married,"  said 
Lee,  "spends  all  her  money  on  his  old  hunting 
trips." 

"Where  is  the  princess  at  the  moment  ?"  asked 
Mr.  Gilpin. 

"They're  in  Somaliland,"  said  Lee.  "They 
almost  took  me.  If  they  had,  I  shouldn't  have 
called  Oducalchi  an  old  scalawag.  You  know 
the  most  dismal  thing,  when  mamma  and  papa 
separated  and  she  married  him,  was  his  turning 
out  to  be  a  regular  old-fashioned  brick.  He  can 
throw  a  fly  yards  further  and  lighter  than  any 
man  /  ever  saw." 

"And  if  you  are  bored,"  said  Phyllis,  "you 
say  to  him,  'Say  something  funny,  Prince,'  and 
he  always  can,  instantly,  without  hesitation." 

"All  things  considered,"  said  Gay,  "mamma's 
been  a  very  lucky  girl." 

"Still,"  said  Mary,  "the  fact  remains  that  she's 
in  no  position  to  support  us  in  the  lap  of  luxury." 

"Our  kid  brother,"  said  Gay,  "the  future 
Prince  Oducalchi,  will  need  all  she's  got.  When 
you  realize  that  that  child  will  have  something 
like  fifty  acres  of  slate  roofs  to  keep  in  order,  it 
sets  you  thinking." 

3 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"One  thing  I  insist  on,"  said  Maud,  "mamma 
shan't  be  bothered  by  a  lot  of  hard-luck  sto- 
ries— 

"Did  it  ever  occur  to  you,  Mr.  Gilpin,"  said 
Arthur,  in  his  gentle  voice,  "that  my  sisters  are 
the  six  sandiest  and  most  beautiful  girls  in  the 
world  ?  I've  been  watching  them  out  of  the 
corner  of  my  eye,  and  wishing  to  heaven  that 
I  were  Romney  or  Gainsborough.  I'd  give  a 
million  dollars,  if  I  had  them,  for  their  six  pro- 
files, immortally  painted  in  a  row.  But  nowa- 
days if  a  boy  has  the  impulse  to  be  a  painter,  he 
is  given  a  camera;  or  if  he  wishes  to  be  a  musician, 
he  is  presented  with  a  pianola.  Luxury  is  the 
executioner  of  art.  Personally  I  am  so  glad  that 
I  am  going  to  be  poor  that  I  don't  know  what  to 
do." 

"Aren't  you  sorry  for  us,  Artie?"  asked  Gay. 

"Very,"  said  he;  "and  I  don't  like  to  be  called 
Artie." 

Immediately  after  their  father's  funeral  the 
Darlings  had  hurried  off  to  their  camp  on  New 
Moon  Lake.  An  Adirondack  "camp"  has  much 
in  common  with  a  Newport  "cottage."  The 
Darlings'  was  no  exception.  There  was  nothing 
camp-like  about  it  except  its  situation  and  the 

4 


The  Seven  Darlings 

rough  bark  slats  with  which  the  sides  of  its  build- 
ings were  covered.  There  were  very  many  build- 
ings. There  was  Darling  House,  in  which  the 
family  had  their  sleeping-rooms  and  bathrooms 
and  dressing-rooms.  There  was  Guide's  House, 
where  the  guides,  engineers,  and  handy  men 
slept  and  cooked,  and  loafed  in  rainy  weather. 
A  passageway,  roofed  but  open  at  the  sides,  led 
from  Darling  House  to  Dining  House — one  vast 
room,  in  the  midst  of  which  an  oval  table  which 
could  be  extended  to  seat  twenty  was  almost 
lost.  Heads  of  moose,  caribou,  and  elk  (not 
"caught"  in  the  Adirondacks)  looked  down 
from  the  walls.  Another  room  equally  large  ad- 
joined this.  It  contained  tables  covered  with 
periodicals;  two  grand  pianos  (so  that  Mary 
and  Arthur  could  play  duets  without  "bump- 
ing"); many  deep  and  easy  chairs,  and  a  fire- 
place so  large  that  when  it  was  half  filled  with 
roaring  logs  it  looked  like  the  gates  of  hell,  and 
was  so  called. 

Pantry  House  and  Bar  House  led  from  Dining 
House  to  Smoke  House,  where  an  olive-faced 
chef,  all  in  white,  was  surrounded  by  burnished 
copper  and  a  wonderful  collection  of  blue  and 
white. 

There  was  Work  House  with  its  bench,  forge, 
5 


The  Seven  Darlings 

and  lathe  for  working  wood  and  iron;  Power 
House  adjoining;  and  on  the  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tain back  of  the  camp,  Spring  House,  from  which 
water,  ice-col^,  at  high  pressure  descended  to 
circulate  in  the  elaborate  plumbing  of  the  camp. 

For  guests,  there  were  little  houses  apart — 
Rest  House,  two  sleeping-rooms,  a  bath  and  a 
sitting-room;  Lone  House,  in  which  one  person 
could  sleep,  keep  clean,  write  letters,  or  bask  on 
a  tiny  balcony  thrust  out  between  the  stems 
of  two  pine-trees  and  overhanging  deep  water; 
Bachelor  House,  to  accommodate  six  of  that 
questionable  species.  And  placed  here  and  there 
among  pines  that  had  escaped  the  attacks  of 
nature  and  the  greed  of  man  were  half  a  dozen 
other  diminutive  houses,  accommodating  from  two 
to  four  persons. 

The  Camp  was  laid  out  like  a  little  village. 
It  had  its  streets,  paved  with  pine-needles,  its 
street  lamps. 

It  had  grown  from  simple  beginnings  with  the 
Darling  fortune;  with  the  passing  of  this,  it  re- 
mained, in  all  its  vast  and  intricate  elaboration, 
like  a  white  elephant  upon  the  family's  hands. 
From  time  to  time  they  had  tried  the  effect  of 
giving  the  place  a  name,  but  had  always  come 
back  to  "The  Camp."  As  such  it  was  known  the 

6 


The  Seven  Darlings 

length  and  breadth  of  the  North  Woods.  It  was 
The  Camp,  par  excellence,  in  a  region  devoted  to 
camps  and  camping. 

"Other  people,"  the  late  Mr.  Darling  once  re- 
marked, "have  more  land,  but  nobody  else  has 
quite  as  much  camp." 

The  property  itself  consisted  of  a  long,  narrow 
peninsula  thrust  far  out  into  New  Moon  Lake, 
with  half  a  mountain  rising  from  its  base.  With 
the  exception  of  a  small  village  at  the  outlet  of 
the  lake,  all  the  remaining  lands  belonged  to  the 
State,  and  since  the  State  had  no  immediate  use 
for  them  and  since  the  average  two  weeks'  campers 
could  not  get  at  them  without  much  portage  and 
expense,  they  were  regarded  by  the  Darlings  as 
their  own  private  preserves. 

"The  Camp,"  said  Mr.  Gilpin,  "is,  of  course, 
a  big  asset.  It  is  unique,  and  it  is  celebrated,  at 
least  among  the  people  who  might  have  the  means 
to  purchase  it  and  open  it.  You  could  ask,  and 
in  time,  I  think,  get  a  very  large  price." 

They  were  gathered  in  the  playroom.  Mary, 
very  tall  and  beautiful,  was  standing  with  her 
back  to  the  fireplace. 

"Mr.  Gilpin,"  she  said,  "I  have  been  coming 
to  The  Camp  off  and  on  for  twenty-eight  years. 
I  will  never  consent  to  its  being  sold." 

7 


' 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Nor  I,"  said  Maud.  "Though  I've  only 
been  coming  for  twenty-six." 

"In  twenty-four  years,"  said  Eve,  "I  have 
formed  an  attachment  to  the  place  which  nothing 
can  break." 

"Arthur,"  appealed  Mr.  Gilpin,  "perhaps  you 
have  some  sense." 

"I  ?"  said  Arthur.  "Why  ?  Twenty-two  years 
ago  I  was  born  here." 

"Good  old  Arthur!"  exclaimed  the  triplets. 
"We  were  born  here,  too — just  nineteen  years 
ago." 

"But,"  objected  Mr.  Gilpin,  "you  can't  run 
the  place — you  can't  live  here.  Confound  it, 
you  young  geese,  you  can't  even  pay  the  taxes." 

Lee  whispered  to  Gay. 

"Look  at  Mary!" 

"Why?" 

"She's  got  a  look  of  father  in  her  eyes — father 
going  down  to  Wall  Street  to  raise  Cain." 

Mary  spoke  very  slowly. 

"Mr.  Gilpin,"  she  said,  "you  are  an  excellent 
estate  lawyer,  and  I  am  very  fond  of  you.  But 
you  know  nothing  about  finance.  We  are  going 
to  live  here  whenever  we  please.  We  are  going 
to  run  it  wide  open,  as  father  did.  We  are  even 
going  to  pay  the  taxes." 

8 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Mr.  Gilpin  was  exasperated. 

"Then  you'll  have  to  take  boarders/'  he  flung 
at  her. 

"Exactly,"  said  Mary. 

There  was  a  short  silence. 

"How  do  you  know,"  said  Gay,  "that  they 
won't  pick  their  teeth  in  public  ?  I  couldn't 
stand  that." 

"They  won't  be  that  kind,"  said  Mary  grimly. 
"And  they  will  be  so  busy  paying  their  bills  that 
they  won't  have  time." 

"Seriously,"  said  Arthur,  "are  you  going  to 
turn  The  Camp  into  an  inn?" 

"No,"  said  Mary,  "not  into  an  inn.  It  has 
always  been  The  Camp.  We  shall  turn  it  into 
The  Inn." 


II 

MR.  GILPIN  had  departed  in  what  had 
perhaps  been  the  late  Mr.  Darling's  last 
extravagant  purchase,  a  motor-boat  which  at 
rest  was  a  streak  of  polished  mahogany,  and  at 
full  speed,  a  streak  of  foam.  The  reluctant  lawyer 
carried  with  him  instructions  to  collect  as  much 
cash  as  possible  and  place  it  to  the  credit  of  the 
equally  reluctant  Arthur  Darling. 

"Arthur,"  Mary  had  agreed,  "is  perhaps  the 
only  one  of  us  who  could  be  made  to  understand 
that  a  bank  account  in  his  name  is  not  necessarily 
at  his  own  personal  disposal.  Arthur  is  altru- 
istically and  Don  Quixotically  honest." 

It  was  necessary  to  warm  the  playroom  with 
a  tremendous  fire,  as  October  had  changed  sud- 
denly from  autumn  to  winter.  There  was  a 
gusty  grayness  in  the  heavens  that  promised 
flurries  of  snow. 

Since  Mary's  proposal  of  the  day  before  to 
turn  the  expensive  camp  into  a  profitable  inn,  the 
family  had  talked  of  little  else,  and  a  number  of 
ways  and  means  had  already  been  chosen  from 

10 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  innumerable  ones  proposed.  In  almost  every 
instance  Arthur  had  found  himself  an  amused 
minority.  His  platform  had  been:  "Make  them 
comfortable  at  a  fair  price." 

But  Mary,  who  knew  the  world,  had  retorted: 

"We  are  not  appealing  to  people  who  consider 
what  they  pay  but  to  people  who  only  consider 
what  they  get.  Make  them  luxurious;  and  they 
will  pay  anything  we  choose  to  ask." 

After  Mr.  Gilpin's  chillsome  departure  in  the 
Streaky  the  family  resumed  the  discussion  in 
front  of  the  great  fire  in  the  playroom.  Wow, 
the  dog,  who  had  been  running  a  deer  for  twenty- 
four  hours  in  defiance  of  all  game-laws,  was  pres- 
ent in  the  flesh,  but  his  weary  spirit  was  in  the 
land  of  dreams,  as  an  occasional  barking  and 
bristling  of  his  mane  testified.  Uncas,  the  chip- 
munk, had  also  demanded  and  received  admit- 
tance to  the  council.  For  a  time  he  had  sat  on 
Arthur's  shoulder,  puffing  his  cheeks  with  in- 
conceivable rapidity,  then,  soporifically  inclined 
by  the  warmth  of  the  fire  and  the  constant  strain 
incident  to  his  attempts  to  understand  the  ins 
and  outs  of  the  English  language  when  rapidly 
and  even  slangily  spoken,  he  dropped  into  Ar- 
thur's breast-pocket  and  went  to  sleep. 

Arthur  sighed.  He  was  feeling  immensely 
ii 


The  Seven  Darlings 

fidgety;  but  he  knew  that  any  sudden,  irritable 
shifting  of  position  would  disturb  the  slumbers  of 
Uncas,  and  so  for  nearly  an  hour  he  held  himself 
heroically,  almost  uncannily,  still. 

Two  years  ago,  dating  from  his  graduation, 
Arthur  had  had  a  change  of  heart.  He  had  been 
so  dissipated  as  to  give  his  family  cause  for  the 
utmost  anxiety.  He  had  squandered  money  with 
both  hands.  He  had  had  a  regular  time  for  light- 
ing a  cigarette,  namely,  when  the  one  which  he 
had  been  smoking  was  ready  to  be  thrown  away. 
He  had  been  a  keen  hunter  and  fisherman.  His 
chief  use  for  domestic  animals  was  to  tease  them 
and  play  tricks  upon  them.  Then  suddenly,  out 
of  this  murky  sky,  had  shone  the  clear  light  of  all 
his  subsequent  behavior.  He  neither  drank  nor 
smoked;  he  neither  slaughtered  deer  nor  caught 
fish.  He  was  never  quarrelsome.  He  went  much 
into  the  woods  to  photograph  and  observe.  He 
became  almost  too  quiet  and  self-effacing  for  a 
young  man.  He  asked  nothing  of  the  world — not 
even  to  be  let  alone.  He  was  patient  under  the 
fiendish  ministrations  of  bores.  He  tamed  birds 
and  animals,  spoiling  them,  as  grandparents  spoil 
grandchildren,  until  they  gave  him  no  peace,  and 
were  always  running  to  him  at  inconvenient  times 
because  they  were  hungry,  because  they  were 

12 


The  Seven  Darlings 

sleepy,  because  they  thought  somebody  had  been 
abusing  them,  or  because  they  wished  to  be 
tickled  and  amused. 

"He's  like  a  peaceful  lake,"  Maud  had  once 
said,  "deep  in  the  woods,  where  the  wind  never 
blows,"  and  Eve  had  nodded  and  said:  "True. 
And  there's  a  woman  at  the  bottom  of  it." 

The  sisters  all  believed  that  Arthur's  change  of 
heart  could  be  traced  to  a  woman.  They  differed 
only  as  to  the  kind. 

"One  of  our  kind,"  Mary  thought,  "who 
wouldn't  have  him." 

"One  of  our  kind,"  thought  Maud,  "who 
couldn't  have  him." 

And  the  triplets  thought  differently  every  day. 
All  except  Gay,  who  happened  to  know. 

"But,"  said  Maud,  "if  we  are  to  appeal  to 
people  of  our  own  class,  all  mamma's  and  papa's 
old  friends  and  our  own  will  come  to  us,  and  that 
will  be  much,  too  much,  like  charity." 

"Right,"  said  Mary.  "Don't  tell  me  I  haven't 
thought  of  that.  I  have.  Applications  from  old 
friends  will  be  politely  refused." 

"We  can  say,"  said  Eve,  "that  we  are  very 
sorry,  but  every  room  is  taken." 

"But  suppose  they  aren't?"  objected  Arthur. 

Eve  retorted  sharply. 
13 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"What  is  that  to  do  with  it  ?  We  are  running 
a  business,  not  a  Bible  class." 

But  Phyllis  was  pulling  a  long  face. 

"Aren't  we  ever  to  see  any  of  our  old  friends 
any  more  ? " 

Lee  and  Gay  nudged  each  other  and  began  to 
tease  her. 

"Dearest  Pill,"  they  said,  "all  will  yet  be  well. 
There  is  more  than  one  Geoffrey  Plantagenet  in 
the  world.  You  shall  have  the  pick  of  all  the 
handsome  strangers." 

"Oh,  come,  now!"  said  Arthur,  "Phyllis  is 
right.  Now  and  then  we  must  have  guests — 
who  don't  pay." 

"Not  until  we  can  afford  them,"  said  Mary. 
"Has  anybody  seen  the  sketch-map  that  papa 
made  of  the  buildings  ?" 

"I  know  where  it  is,"  said  Arthur,  "but  I 
can't  get  it  now;  because  Wow  needs  my  feet  for 
a  pillow  and  at  the  moment  Uncas  is  very  sound 
asleep." 

"Can't  you  tell  us  where  it  is  ?" 

"Certainly,"  he  said;  "it's  in  the  safe.  The 
safe  is  locked." 

"And  where  is  the  key?" 

"Just  under  Uncas." 

"Very   well,    then,"    said    Mary,    "important 


The  Seven  Darlings 

business  must  wait  until  Stripes  wakes  up.  Mean- 
while, I  think  we  ought  to  make  up  our  minds  how 
and  how  much  to  advertise." 

"There  are  papers,"  said  Eve,  "that  all  wealthy 
Americans  always  see,  and  then  there's  that  Eng- 
lish paper  with  all  the  wonderful  advertisements 
of  country  places  for  sale  or  to  let.  I  vote  for  a 
full-page  ad  in  that.  People  will  say,  'Jove,  this 
must  be  a  wonderful  proposition  if  it  pays  'em  to 
advertise  it  in  an  English  paper.' ' 

Everybody  agreed  with  Eve  except  Arthur. 
He  merely  smiled  with  and  at  her. 

"We  can  say,"  said  Eve,  "shooting  and  fishing 
over  a  hundred  thousand  acres.  Does  the  State 
own  as  much  as  that,  Arthur?" 

He  nodded,  knowing  the  futility  of  arguing 
with  the  feminine  conscience. 

"Two  hundced  thousand  ?" 

He  nodded  again. 

"Then,"  said  Eve,  "make  a  note  of  this,  some- 
body." Maud  went  to  the  writing-table.  "Shoot- 
ing and  fishing  over  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
acres." 

"There  must  be  pictures,"  said  Maud,  "in  the 
text  of  the  ad — the  place  is  full  of  them;  and  if 
they  won't  do,  Arthur  can  take  others — when 
Wow  and  Uncas  wake  up." 

15 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"There  must  be  that  picture  after  the  opening 
of  the  season,"  said  Mary,  "the  year  the  party 
got  nine  bucks — somebody  make  a  point  of  find* 
ing  that  picture." 

"There  are  some  good  strings  of  trout  and  bass 
photographically  preserved,"  said  Gay. 

"A  picture  of  chef  in  his  kitchen  will  appeal," 
said  Lee. 

"So  will  interiors,"  said  Maud.  "Bedrooms 
with  vistas  of  plumbing.  Let's  be  honestly 
grateful  to  papa  for  all  the  money  he  spent  on 
porcelain  and  silver  plate." 

"Oh,  come,"  said  Mary,  "we  must  advertise 
in  the  American  papers,  too.  I  think  we  should 
spend  a  good  many  thousand  dollars.  And  of 
course  we  must  do  away  with  the  big  table  in 
the  dining-house  and  substitute  little  tables.  I 
propose  that  we  ransack  the  place  for  photo- 
graphs, and  that  Maud  try  her  hand  at  composing 
full-page  ads.  And,  Arthur,  please  don't  forget 
the  sketch  plan  of  the  buildings — we'll  have  to 
make  quite  a  lot  of  alterations." 

"I've  thought  of  something,"  said  Maud. 
"Just  a  line.  Part  of  the  ad,  of  course,  mentions 
prices.  Now  I  think  if  we  say  prices  from  so  and 
so  up — it  looks  cheap  and  commonplace.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  ad,  then,  after  we've  described  all 

16 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  domestic  comforts  of  The  Camp  and  its  sport- 
ing opportunities,  let's  see  if  we  can't  catch  the 
clientele  we  are  after  with  this: 

"' PRICES  RATHER  HIGH/" 

"Maud,"  said  Mary,  after  swift  thought,  "your 
mind  is  as  clear  as  a  gem.  Just  think  how  that 
line  would  have  appealed  to  papa  if  he'd  been 
looking  into  summer  or  winter  resorts.  Make  a 
note  of  it —  What  are  you  two  whispering 
about?" 

Lee  and  Gay  looked  up  guiltily.  They  had 
not  only  been  whispering  but  giggling.  They 
said:  "Nothing.  Absolutely  nothing." 

But  presently  they  put  on  sweaters  and  rowed 
off  in  a  guide  boat,  so  that  they  might  converse 
without  fear  of  being  observed. 

"Sure  you've  got  it?"  asked  Lee. 

"Umm,"  said  Gay,  "sure." 

They  giggled* 

"And  you  think  we're  not  just  plain  conceited  ?" 

"My  dear  Lee,"  said  Gay,  "Mary,  Maud,  and 
Eve  are  famous  for  their  faces  and  their  figgers — 
have  been  for  years,  poor  old  things.  Well,  in 
my  candid  opinion,  you  and  Phyllis  are  better- 
looking  in  every  way.  I  look  at  you  two  from  the 

17 


The  Seven  Darlings 

cool  standpoint  of  a  stranger,  and  I  tell  you  that 
you* are  incomparably  good-looking." 

Lee  laughed  with  mischievous  delight. 

"And  you  look  so  exactly  like  us,"  she  said, 
"that  strangers  can't  tell  us  apart." 

"For  myself,"  said  Gay  demurely,  "I  claim 
nothing.  Absolutely  nothing.  But  you  and  Pill 
are  certainly  as  beautiful  as  you  are  young." 

"For  the  sake  of  argument,  then,"  said  Lee, 
"let's  admit  that  we  six  sisters  considered  as  a 
collection  are  somewhat  alluring  to  the  eye. 
Well — when  the  mail  goes  with  the  ads  Maud  is 
making  up,  we'll  go  with  it,  and  make  such  changes 
in  the  choice  of  photographs  as  we  see  fk." 

"That  won't  do,"  said  Gay.  "There  will  be 
proofs  to  correct." 

"Then  we'll  wait  till  the  proofs  are  corrected 
and  sent  off." 

"Yes.  That  will  be  the  way.  It  would  be  a 
pity  for  the  whole  scheme  to  fall  through  for  lack 
of  brains.  I  suppose  the  others  would  never 
agree  ? " 

"The  girls  might,"  said  Lee,  "but  Arthur  never. 
He  would  rise  up  like  a  lion.  You  know,  deep 
down  in  his  heart  he's  a  frightful  stickler  for  the 
proprieties." 

"We  shall  get  ourselves  into  trouble." 
18 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"It  will  not  be  the  first  or  the  last  time.  And 
besides,  we  can  escape  to  the  woods  if  necessary, 
like  Bessie  Belle  and  Mary  Grey." 

"Who  were  they?" 

'They  were  two  bonnie  lassies. 
They  built  a  house  on  yon  burn  brae 
And  thecht  it  o'er  wi'  rashes.'  " 


Ill 

IF  we  except  Arthur,  whose  knowledge  of  the 
Adirondack  woods  and  waters  was  that  of  a 
naturalist,  Lee  and  Gay  were  the  sportsmen  of  the 
family.  They  had  begun  to  learn  the  arts  of 
fishing  and  hunting  from  excellent  masters  at  the 
tender  age  of  five.  They  knew  the  deeps  and 
shallows  of  every  lake  and  brook  within  many 
miles  as  intimately  as  a  good  housewife  knows  the 
shelves  in  her  linen  closet.  They  talked  in  terms 
of  blazes,  snags,  spring  holes,  and  runways. 
Each  owned  a  guide  boat,  incomparably  light, 
which  she  could  swing  to  her  shoulders  and  carry 
for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  without  blowing.  If  Lee 
was  the  better  shot,  Gay  could  throw  the  more 
seductive  fly. 

There  had  been  a  guide  in  the  girls'  extreme 
youth,  a  Frenchman,  Pierre  Amadis  de  Troissac, 
who  had  perhaps  begun  life  as  a  gentleman. 
Whatever  his  history,  he  had  taught  the  precious 
pair  the  rudiments  of  French  and  the  higher  mys- 
teries of  fishing. 

20 


The  Seven  Darlings 

He  had  made  a  special  study  of  spring  holes,  an 
essential  in  Adirondack  trout-fishing,  and  when- 
ever the  Darlings  wanted  trout,  it  had  only  been 
necessary  to  tell  De  Troissac  how  many  they 
wanted  and  to  wait  a  few  hours.  On  those  oc- 
casions when  he  went  fishing  for  the  larder,  Lee 
and  Gay,  two  little  roly-polies  with  round,  in- 
nocent eyes,  often  accompanied  him.  It  never 
occurred  to  De  Troissac  that  the  children  could 
mark  down  the  exact  places  from  which  he  took 
fish,  and,  one  by  one  and  quite  unintentionally, 
he  revealed  to  them  the  hard-won  secrets  of  his 
spring  holes.  The  knowledge,  however,  went  no 
further.  They  would  have  told  Phyllis,  of  course, 
if  she  had  been  a  sport.  But  'she  wasn't.  She 
resembled  Lee  and  Gay  almost  exactly  in  all 
other  ways;  but  the  spirit  of  pursuit  and  capture 
was  left  out  of  her.  Twice  she  had  upset  a  boat 
because  a  newly  landed  bass  had  suddenly  begun 
to  flop  in  the  bottom  of  it,  and  once,  coming  ac- 
cidentally upon  a  guide  in  the  act  of  disembowel- 
ling a  deer,  she  had  gone  into  hysterics.  She  could 
row,  carry  a  boat,  swim,  and  find  the  more  trav- 
elled trails;  but,  as  Lee  and  Gay  said:  "Pill  would 
starve  in  the  woods  directly  the  season  was 
over." 

She    couldn't    discharge    even    a    twenty-two 

21 


The  Seven  Darlings 

calibre  rifle  without  shutting  her  eyes;  she  couldn't 
throw  a  fly  twenty  feet  without  snarling  her 
leader.  The  more  peaceful  arts  of  out-of- 
doors  had  excited  her  imagination  and  latent 
skill. 

In  the  heart  of  the  woods,  back  of  The  Camp, 
not  to  be  seen  or  even  suspected  until  you  came 
suddenly  upon  it,  she  had  an  acre  of  gardens 
under  exquisite  cultivation,  and  not  a  little  glass. 
She  specialized  in  nectarines,  white  muscats  of 
Alexandria,  new  peas,  and  heaven-blue  larkspur. 
But,  for  the  sake  of  others,  she  grew  to  perfec- 
tion beets,  sweet  corn,  the  lilies  in  variety,  and 
immense  Japanese  iris. 

As  The  Camp  was  to  be  turned  into  an  inn 
which  should  serve  its  guests  with  delicious  food, 
Phyllis  and  her  garden  became  of  immense  im- 
portance and  she  began  to  sit  much  apart,  mark- 
ing seed  catalogues  with  one  end  of  a  pencil  and 
drumming  on  her  beautiful  teeth  with  the 
other. 

Negotiations  had  been  undertaken  with  a  num- 
ber of  periodicals  devoted  to  outdoor  life,  and  a 
hundred  schemes  for  advertising  had  been  boiled 
down  to  one,  which  even  Arthur  was  willing  to 
let  stand.  To  embody  Mary's  ideas  of  a  profitable 
proposition  into  a  page  of  advertising  without 

22 


The  Seven  Darlings 

being  too  absurd  or  too  "cheap,"  had  proved  ex- 
tremely difficult. 

"We  will  run  The  Inn,"  she  said,  "so  that 
rich  people  will  live  very  much  as  they  would  if 
they  were  doing  the  running.  One  big  price  must 
cover  all  the  luxuries  of  home.  We  must  elimi- 
nate all  extras — everything  which  is  a  nuisance  or 
a  trouble.  Except  for  the  trifling  fact  that  we 
receive  pay  for  it,  we  must  treat  them  exactly 
i  as  papa  used  to  treat  his  guests.  He  gave  his 
guests  splendid  food  of  his  own  ordering.  When 
they  wanted  cigars  or  cigarettes,  they  helped 
themselves.  There  was  always  champagne  for 
dinner,  but  if  men  preferred  whiskey  and  soda, 
they  told  the  butler,  and  he  saw  that  they  got  it. 
What  I'm  driving  at  is  this:  There  must  be  no 
difference  in  price  for  a  guest  who  drinks  cham- 
pagne and  one  who  doesn't  drink  anything. 
And  more  important  still,  we  must  do  all  the 
laundering  without  extra  charge;  guides,  guide 
boats,  guns,  and  fishing-tackle  must  be  on  tap — 
just  as  papa  had  everything  for  his  guests.  The 
one  big  price  must  include  absolutely  every- 
thing." 

Added  to  this  general  idea,  it  was  further  con- 
veyed in  the  final  advertisement  that  the  shoot- 
ing was  over  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  and 

23 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  fishing  in  countless  lakes  and  streams.  And 
the  last  line  of  the  ad,  as  had  been  previously 
agreed,  was  this: 

"PRICES  RATHER  HIGH." 

And,  as  Gay  said  to  Lee:  "If  that  doesn't  fetch 
'em — you  and  I  know  something  that  maybe  will." 
The  full-page  ad  began  and  ended  with  a  por- 
trait of  Uncas,  the  chipmunk,  front  view,  sitting 
up,  his  cheeks  puffed  to  the  bursting  point.  The 
centre  of  the  page  was  occupied  by  a  rather  large 
view  of  The  Camp  and  many  of  the  charming 
little  buildings  which  composed  it,  taken  from  the 
lake.  Throughout  the  text  were  scattered  repro- 
ductions— strings  of  trout,  a  black  bear,  nine 
deer  hanging  in  a  row,  and  other  seductions  to  an 
out-of-door  life.  For  lovers  of  good  food  there 
was  a  tiny  portrait  of  the  chef  and  adjoining  it  a 
photograph  of  the  largest  bunch  of  white  muscats 
that  had  ever  matured  in  Phyllis's  vinery. 

A  few  days  before  the  final  proofs  began  to 
come  in  from  the  advertising  managers,  there 
arrived,  addressed  to  Gay,  a  package  from  a 
firm  in  New  York  which  makes  a  specialty  of 
developing  and  printing  photographs  for  ama- 
teurs. Gay  concealed  the  package,  but  Lee  had 

24 


The  Seven  Darlings 

noted  its  existence,  and  sighed  with  relief.  A 
little  later  she  found  occasion  to  take  Gay  aside. 

"Was  the  old  film  all  right  ?  Did  they  print 
well?" 

Gay  nodded.  "It  always  was  a  wonderful 
picture,"  she  said. 

"Us  for  the  tall  timber,"  she  said — "when  they 
come  out." 

The  final  proofs  being  corrected  and  enveloped, 
Gay  and  Lee,  innocent  and  bored  of  face,  an- 
nounced that,  as  there  was  nothing  to  do,  they 
thought  they  would  row  the  mail  down  to  the 
village.  It  was  a  seven-mile  row,  but  that  was 
nothing  out  of  the  ordinary  for  them  and  it  was 
arranged  that  the  Streak  should  be  sent  after  them 
in  case  they  showed  signs  of  being  late  for  lunch. 

Gay  rowed  with  leisurely  strokes,  while  Lee, 
seated  in  the  stern,  busied  herself  with  a  pair  of 
scissors  and  a  pot  of  paste.  She  was  giving  the 
finally  corrected  proofs  that  still  more  final  cor- 
recting which  she  and  Gay  had  agreed  to  be 
necessary. 

They  had  decided  that  the  centrepiece  of  the 
advertisement — a  mere  general  view  of  The  Camp 
— though  very  charming  in  its  way,  "meant  noth- 
ing," and  they  had  made  up  their  unhallowed 
minds  to  substitute  in  its  place  one  of  those  "for- 

25 


The  Seven  Darlings 

tunate  snap-shots,"  the  film  of  which  Gay  had 
— happened  to  preserve. 

In  this  photograph  the  six  Darling  sisters  were 
seated  in  a  row,  on  the  edge  of  The  Camp  float. 
Their  feet  and  ankles  were  immersed.  They 
wore  black  bathing-dresses,  exactly  alike,  and 
the  bathing-dresses  were  of  rather  thin  material 
— and  very,  very  wet. 

The  six  exquisite  heads  perched  on  the  six 
exquisite  figures  proved  a  picture  which,  as  Lee 
and  Gay  admitted,  might  cause  even  a  worthy 
young  man  to  leave  home  and  mother. 

It  was  not  until  they  were  half-way  home  that 
Lee  suddenly  cried  aloud  and  hid  her  face  in  her 
hands. 

"For  Heaven's  sake,"  exclaimed  Gay,  "trim 
boat,  and  what's  the  matter  anyway?" 

"Matter?"  exclaimed  Lee;  "that  picture  of  us 
sits  right  on  top  of  the  line  Prices  Rather  High. 
And  it's  too  late  to  do  anything  about  it!" 

Gay  turned  white  and  then  red,  and  then  she 
burst  out  laughing.  '  'Tis  awful,"  she  said,  "but 
it  will  certainly  fetch  'em." 


26 


IV 

THE  CAMP  itself  underwent  numerous 
changes  during  the  winter;  and  even  the 
strong-hearted  Mary  was  appalled  by  the  amount 
of  money  which  it  had  been  found  necessary  to 
expend.  The  playroom  would,  of  course,  be 
reserved  for  the  use  of  guests,  and  a  similar 
though  smaller  and  inferior  room  had  been  thrust 
out  from  the  west  face  of  Darling  House  for  the 
use  of  the  family.  Then  Maud,  who  had  volun- 
teered to  take  charge  of  all  correspondence  and 
accounts,  had  insisted  that  an  office  be  built  for 
her  near  the  dock.  This  was  mostly  shelves,  a 
big  fireplace,  and  a  table.  Here  guests  would 
register  upon  arrival;  here  the  incoming  mail 
would  be  sorted  and  the  outgoing  weighed  and 
stamped.  It  had  also  been  found  necessary,  in 
view  of  the  very  large  prospective  wash,  to  enlarge 
and  renovate  Laundry  House  and  provide  sleep- 
ing quarters  for  a  couple  of  extra  laundresses. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  scarcity  and 
reluctance  of  labor  in  the  Adirondacks  will  best 
understand  how  these  trifling  matters  bit  into  the 
Darling  capital. 

27 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Sometimes  Mary,  who  held  herself  responsible 
for  the  possible  failure  of  the  projected  inn,  could 
not  sleep  at  night.  Suppose  that  the  advertising, 
which  would  cost  thousands  of  dollars,  should 
fall  flat  ?  Suppose  that  not  a  single  solitary  per- 
son should  even  nibble  at  the  high  prices  ?  The 
Darlings  might  even  find  themselves  dreadfully 
in  debt.  The  Camp  would  have  to  go.  She  suf- 
fered from  nightmares,  which  are  bad,  and  from 
daymares,  which  are  worse.  Then  one  day, 
brought  across  the  ice  from  the  village  of  Carry- 
town  at  the  lower  end  of  the  lake,  she  received  the 
following  letter: 

Miss  DARLING, 

The  Camp,  New  Moon  Lake  in  the  Adirondacks, 
New  York. 

DEAR  MADAM: — Yesterday  morning,  quite  by  acci- 
dent, I  saw  the  prospectus  of  your  inn  on  the  desk 
of  Mr.  Burns,  the  advertising  manager  of  The  Four 
Seasons.  I  note  with  regret  that  you  are  not  opening 
until  the  first  of  July.  Would  it  not  be  possible  for 
you  to  receive  myself  and  a  party  of  guests  very  much 
earlier,  say  just  when  the  ice  has  gone  out  of  the  lake 
and  the  trout  are  in  the  warm  shallows  along  the 
shores  ?  Personally,  it  is  my  plan  to  stay  on  with 
you  for  the  balance  of  the  season,  provided,  of  course, 
that  all  your  accommodations  have  not  been  previously 
taken. 

With  regard  to  prices,  I  note  only  that  they  are 
"rather  high."  I  would  suggest  that,  as  it  would 

28 


The  Seven  Darlings 

probably  inconvenience  you  to  receive  guests  prior 
to  the  date  set  for  the  formal  opening  of  your  camp, 
you  name  a  rate  for  three  early  weeks  which  would 
be  profitable  to  you.  There  will  be  six  men  in  my 
party,  including  myself. 

Very  truly  yours, 

SAMUEL  LANGHAM. 

Mary,  her  face  flushed  with  the  bright  colors 
of  triumph,  read  this  letter  aloud  to  the  assembled 
family. 

"Does  anybody,"  she  asked,  "know  anything 
about  Samuel  Langham  ?  Is  he  a  suitable  per- 
son?" 

"I  know  of  him,"  said  Arthur,  smiling  at  some 
recollection  or  other.  "He  is  what  the  news- 
papers call  a  'well-known  clubman.'  He  is  rich, 
fat,  good-natured,  and  not  old.  It  is  that  part  of 
your  prospectus  which  touches  upon  the  cuisine 
that  has  probably  affected  him.  His  father  was  a 
large  holder  of  Standard  Oil  securities." 

"As  for  me,"  said  Gay,  "I've  seen  him.  Do 
you  remember,  Phyllis,  being  asked  to  a  most 
'normous  dinner  dance  at  the  Redburns'  the  year 
we  came  out?  At  the  last  minute  you  caught 
cold  and  wanted  to  back  out,  but  Mary  said  that 
wasn't  done,  and  so  I  went  in  your  place,  and,  as 
usual,  nobody  knew  the  difference.  Well,  Mr. 
Langham  was  there.  I  didn't  meet  him,  but  I 

29 


The  Seven  Darlings 

remember  I  watched  him  eat.  He  is  very  smug- 
looking.  He  didn't  like  the  champagne.  I  re- 
member that.  He  lifted  his  glass  hopefully,  took 
one  swallow,  put  his  glass  down,  and  never  touched 
it  again.  His  face  for  the  rest  of  dinner  had  the 
expression  of  one  who  has  been  deeply  wronged. 
I  thought  of  Louis  XVI  mounting  the  scaffold." 

"I  do  wish,"  said  Mary,  "that  we  knew  what 
kind  of  wine  the  creature  likes." 

"Father  left  a  splendid  collection,"  said  Arthur. 
"Take  Mr.  Langham  into  the  cellar.  He'll  en- 
joy that.  Let  him  pick  his  own  bottle." 

In  the  event,  Maud  sat  down  in  her  new  office 
and  wrote  Mr.  Langham  that  he  and  his  five 
guests  could  be  received  earlier  in  the  season. 
And  then,  with  fear  and  trembling,  she  named  a 
price  per  diem  that  amounted  to  highway  robbery. 

Mr.  Langham's  answer  was  prompt  and  cheer- 
ful. He  asked  merely  to  be  notified  when  the  ice 
had  gone  out  of  the  lake. 

"Well,"  said  Mary,  with  a  long-drawn  sigh  of 
relief,  "the  prices  don't  seem  to  have  frightened 
him  nearly  as  much  as  they  frightened  us.  But, 
after  all,  the  prospectus  was  alluring — though  we 
say  it  that  shouldn't." 

Lee  and  Gay  were  troubled  by  qualms  of  con- 
science. The  advertisements  of  The  Camp  were 

30 


The  Seven  Darlings 

to  appear  in  the  February  number  of  some  of  the 
more  important  periodicals,  and  the  two  scape- 
graces were  beginning  to  be  horribly  alarmed. 

Magazines  have  a  way  of  being  received  last 
by  those  most  interested  in  seeing  them.  And 
before  even  a  copy  of  The  Four  Seasons  reached  the 
Darlings,  there  came  a  number  of  letters  from 
people  who  had  already  seen  the  advertisement 
in  it.  One  letter  was  from  a  very  old  friend  of  the 
family,  and  ran  as  follows: 

MY  DEAR  MARY: 

How  could  you !  I  have  seen  your  advertisement 
of  The  Camp  in  The  Four  Seasons.  It  is  earning 
much  talk  and  criticism.  I  don't  know  what  you 
could  have  been  thinking  of.  I  have  always  regarded 
you  as  one  of  the  sanest  and  best-bred  women  I  know. 
But  it  seems  that  you  are  not  above  sacrificing  your 
own  dignity  to  financial  gain 

"Well,  in  the  name  of  all  that's  ridiculous,"  ex- 
claimed Mary;  "of  all  that's  impertinent! — will 
somebody  kindly  tell  me  what  my  personality 
has  to  do  with  our  prospectus  of  The  Camp  ?" 

Those  who  could  have  told  her  held  their 
tongues  and  quaked  inwardly.  The  others  joined 
in  Mary's  surprise  and  indignation.  Even  Arthur, 
who  hated  the  whole  innkeeping  scheme,  was 
roused  out  of  his  ordinary  placidity. 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  shall  write  to  the  horrid  old  woman,"  said 
Mary,  "and  tell  her  to  mind  her  own  business. 
I  shall  also  tell  her  that  we  are  receiving  so  many 
applications  for  accommodations  that  we  don't 
know  how  to  choose.  That  isn't  quite  true,  of 
course;  but  we  have  received  some.  Since  I  am 
not  above  sacrificing  my  dignity" — she  went  on 
angrily — "to  financial  gain,  I  may  as  well  throw 
a  few  lies  into  the  bargain." 

The  next  day,  addressed  to  "The  Camp,"  came 
the  long-expected  number  of  The  Four  Seasons. 
Arthur  opened  it  and  began  to  turn  the  leaves. 
Presently,  from  the  centre  of  a  page,  he  saw  his 
six  beautiful  sisters  looking  him  in  the  face. 

"Mary!"  he  called,  in  such  a  voice  that  she 
came  running.  She  looked  and  turned  white. 
Eve  came,  and  Maud  and  Phyllis. 

"Who  is  responsible  for  this —  '  cried  Arthur, 
"for  this  sickening — this  degraded  piece  of  mis- 
chief?" 

"You  corrected  the  final  proofs  yourself,"  said 
Maud. 

"And  sealed  them  up.  If  I  find  that  some 
mischief-maker  in  the  office  of  The  Four  Seasons 
has  been  playing  tricks " 

"The  mischief-makers  are  to  be  found  nearer 
home,"  said  Mary.  "Don't  you  remember  that 

32 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Lee  and  Gay  took  the  proofs  to  the  post-office. 
They  said  they  were  bored  and  could  think  of 
nothing  to  do.  This  is  what  they  were  thinking 
of  doing !" 

"Where  are  they?"  he  said  in  a  grim  voice. 

"Now,  Arthur,"  said  Maud,  "think  before 
you  say  anything  to  them  that  you  may  regret. 
As  for  the  picture  of  us  in  our  bathing-suits — 
well,  I,  for  one,  don't  see  anything  dreadful 
about  it.  In  fact,  I  think  we  look  rather  lovely." 

Arthur  groaned. 

"I  want  to  talk  to  Lee  and  Gay,"  he  said. 
"My  sisters — an  advertisement  in  a  magazine 
— for  drummers  and  newsboys  to  make  jokes 
about " 

He  grew  white  and  whiter,  until  his  innocent 
sisters  were  thoroughly  frightened.  Then  he 
started  out  of  the  playroom  in  search  of  Lee 
and  Gay. 

In  or  about  The  Camp  they  were  not  to  be 
found.  Nobody  had  seen  them  since  breakfast. 
With  this  information,  he  returned  to  the  play- 
room. 

"They've  run  away,"  he  said,  "and  I'm  going 
after  them." 

"I  wouldn't,"  said  Mary.  "The  harm's  been 
done.  You  can't  very  well  spank  them.  I  wish 

33 


The  Seven  Darlings 

you    could.      You    can    only    scold — and    what 
earthly  good  will  that  do  them,  or  you  ?" 

"I  don't  know  that  anything  I  may  say,"  said 
Arthur,  "will  do  them  any  good.  I  live  in 
hopes." 

"Have  you  any  idea  where  they've  gone  ?" 

"I'll  cast  about  in  a  big  circle  and  find  their 
tracks." 

When  Arthur,  mittened  and  snow-shoed,  had 
departed  in  search  of  Lee  and  Gay,  the  remaining 
sisters  gathered  about  the  full-page  advertise- 
ment in  The  Four  Seasons,  and  passed  rapidly 
from  anger  to  mild  hysterics.  Mary  was  the  last 
to  laugh. 

And  she  said:  "Girls,  I  will  tell  you  an  awful 
secret.  I  never  would  have  consented  to  this, 
but  as  long  as  Lee  and  Gay  have  gone  and  done 
it,  I'm — glad." 

"The  only  thing  7  mind,"  said  Eve,  "is  Arthur. 
He'll  take  it  hard." 

"We  can't  help  that,"  said  Maud.  "Business 
is  business.  And  this  wretched,  shocking  piece  of 
mischief  spells  success.  I  feel  it  in  my  bones. 
There's  no  use  being  silly  about  ourselves.  We've 
got  our  way  to  make  in  the  world — and,  as  a  sex- 
tet  " 

She  lingered  over  the  picture. 
34 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"As  a  sextet,  there's  no  use  denying  that  we 
are  rather  lovely  to  look  at." 

Phyllis  put  in  a  word  blindly. 

"Maud,"  she  said,  "among  the  applications 
you  have  received,  how  many  are  from  women  ?" 

Maud  laughed  aloud. 

"None,"  she  said. 

"There  wouldn't  be,"  said  Eve. 

"Well,"  said  Mary,  "compared  to  the  rest  of 
you,  I'm  quite  an  old  woman,  and  I  say — so  much 
the  better." 


V 

EVEN  on  going  into  the  open  air  from  a 
warmed  room,  it  would  not  have  struck  you 
as  a  cold  day.  But  thermometers  marked  a  num- 
ber of  degrees  worse  than  zero.  The  sky  was 
bright  and  blue.  Not  a  breath  of  wind  stirred. 
In  the  woods  the  underbrush  was  hidden  by  the 
smooth  accumulations  of  snow,  so  that  the  going 
was  open. 

The  Adirondack  winter  climate  is  such  that  a 
man  runs  less  risk  of  getting  too  cold  than  of 
getting  too  warm.  Arthur,  moving  swiftly  in  a 
great  circle  so  that  at  some  point  he  should  come 
upon  the  tracks  of  his  culprit  sisters,  shed  first 
his  mittens  and  then  his  coat.  The  former  he 
thrust  into  his  trousers  pocket,  and  he  hung  the 
latter  to  a  broken  limb  where  he  could  easily  find 
it  on  his  return. 

"There  would  be  some  sense  in  running  away 
in  summer,"  he  thought.  "It  would  take  an  In- 
dian or  a  dog  to  track  them  then,  but  in  winter 
— I  gave  them  credit  for  more  sense." 

He   came   upon   the   outgoing   marks   of  their 


The  Seven  Darlings 

snow-shoes  presently,  just  beyond  Phyllis's  garden, 
to  the  north  of  the  camp.  In  imagination  he  saw 
the  two  lithe  young  beauties  striding  sturdily  and 
tirelessly  over  the  snow,  and  then  and  there  the 
extreme  pinnacles  of  his  anger  toppled  and  fell. 
There  is  no  occupation  to  which  a  maiden  may 
lend  herself  so  virginal  as  woodmanship.  And 
he  fell  to  thinking  less  of  his  young  sisters'  indis- 
cretion than  of  the  extreme  and  unsophisticated 
innocence  which  had  led  them  into  it.  What 
could  girls  know  of  men,  anyway  ?  What  did  his 
sisters  know  of  him?  That  he  had  been  extrava- 
gant and  rather  fast.  Had  they  an  inkling  of 
what  being  rather  fast  meant  ?  His  smooth  fore- 
head contracted  with  painful  thoughts.  Even 
Mary's  indignation  upon  the  discovery  of  the 
photograph  in  The  Four  Seasons  had  not  matched 
his  own.  She  had  been  angry  because  she  was  a 
gentlewoman,  and  gentlewomen  shun  publicity. 
She  had  not  even  guessed  at  the  degradation  to 
which  broadcast  pictures  of  beautiful  women  are 
subjected.  His  anger  turned  .  from  his  sisters 
presently  and  glowered  upon  the  whole  world  of 
men;  his  hands  closed  to  strike,  and  opened  to 
clutch  and  choke.  That  Lee  and  Gay  had  done 
such  a  thing  was  earnest  only  of  innocence 
coupled  with  mischief.  They  must  know  that 

37 


The  Seven  Darlings 

what  they  had  done  was  wrong,  since  they  had 
fled  from  any  immediate  consequences,  but  how 
wrong  it  was  they  could  never  dream,  even  in 
nightmares.  Nor  was  it  possible  for  him  to  ex- 
plain. How,  then,  could  any  anger  which  he 
might  visit  upon  them  benefit  ?  And  who  was  he, 
when  it  came  to  that,  to  assume  the  unassailable 
morality  of  a  parent  ? 

It  came  to  this:  That  Arthur  followed  the 
marks  of  Lee's  and  Gay's  snow-shoes  mechanic- 
ally, and  raged,  not  against  them,  not  against  the 
world  of  men,  but  against  himself.  He  had  said 
once  in  jest  that  many  an  artistic  impulse  had 
been  crushed  by  the  camera  and  the  pianola. 
But  how  pitifully  true  this  had  been  in  his  own 
case !  If  he  had  been  born  into  less  indulgence, 
he  might  have  painted,  he  might  have  played. 
The  only  son  in  a  large  family  of  daughters,  his 
father  and  mother  had  worshipped  the  ground 
upon  which  his  infant  feet  had  trod.  He  had 
never  known  what  it  was  to  want  anything.  He 
had  never  been  allowed  to  turn  a  hand  to  his  own 
honest  advantage.  He  was  the  kind  of  boy  who, 
under  less  golden  circumstances,  would  have 
saved  his  pocket-money  and  built  with  his  own 
hands  a  boat  or  whatever  he  needed.  There  is  a 
song:  "I  want  what  I  want  when  I  want  it." 

38 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Arthur  might  have  sung:  "I  get  what  I'm  going 
to  want  and  then  I  don't  want  it." 

His  contemporaries  had  greatly  envied  him, 
when,  as  a  mere  matter  of  justice,  they  should 
have  pitied  him.  All  his  better  impulses  had  been 
gnarled  by  indulgence.  He  had  done  things  that 
showed  natural  ability;  but  of  what  use  was  that  ? 
He  was  too  old  now  to  learn  to  draw.  He  played 
rather  delightfully  upon  the  piano,  or  any  other 
instrument,  for  that  matter.  To  what  end  ?  He 
could  not  read  a  note. 

There  was  nothing  that  Arthur  could  not  have 
done,  if  he  had  been  let  alone.  There  were  many 
things  that  he  would  have  done. 

At  college  he  had  seen  in  one  smouldering  flash 
of  intuition  how  badly  he  had  started  in  the  race 
of  life.  When  others  were  admiring  his  many 
brilliancies,  he  was  mourning  for  the  lost  years 
when,  under  almost  any  guidance  save  that  of 
his  beloved  father,  he  might  have  laid  such 
sturdy  foundations  to  future  achievements — 
pedestals  on  which  to  erect  statues. 

Self-knowledge  had  made  him  hard  for  a  sea- 
son and  cynical.  As  a  tired  sea-gull  miscalculates 
distance  and  dips  his  wings  into  the  sea,  so  Ar- 
thur, when  he  thought  that  he  was  merely  flying 
low  the  better  to  see  and  to  observe,  had  alighted 

39 


The  Seven  Darlings 

without  much  struggling  in  a  pool  of  dissipation 
and  vice. 

The  memory  was  more  of  a  weariness  to  him 
than  a  sharp  regret.  Of  what  use  is  remorse — 
after  the  fact  ?  Let  it  come  before  and  all  will  be 
well. 

At  last,  more  by  accident  than  design,  he  drew 
out  of  the  muddy  ways  into  which  he  had  fallen 
and  limped  off — not  so  much  toward  better  things 
as  away  from  worse. 

Then  it  was  that  Romance  had  come  for  him, 
and  carried  him  on  strong  wings  upward  toward 
the  empyrean. 

Even  now,  she  was  only  twenty.  She  had 
married  a  man  more  than  twice  her  age.  He 
had  been  her  guardian,  and  she  had  felt  that  it 
was  her  duty.  Her  marriage  proved  desperately 
unhappy.  She  and  Arthur  met,  and,  as  upon  a 
signal,  loved. 

For  a  few  weeks  of  one  golden  summer,  they 
had  known  the  ethereal  bliss  of  seeing  each  other 
every  day.  They  met  as  little  children,  and  so 
parted.  They  accepted  the  law  and  convention 
which  stood  between  them,  not  as  a  barrier  to  be 
crossed  or  circumvented  but  with  childlike  faith 
as  a  something  absolutely  impassable — like  the 
space  which  separates  the  earth  and  the  moon. 

40 


The  Seven  Darlings 

They  remained  utterly  innocent  in  thought 
and  deed,  merely  loved  and  longed  and  renounced 
so  very  hard  that  their  poor  young  hearts  almost 
broke. 

Not  so  the  "old  man." 

It  happened,  in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  that 
he  brought  his  wife  to  New  York,  in  whose  Wall 
Street  he  had  intricate  interests.  He  learned 
that  she  was  by  way  of  seeing  more  of  Arthur 
than  a  girl  of  eighteen  married  to  a  man  of  nearly 
fifty  ought  to  see.  He  did  not  at  once  burst  into 
coarse  abuse  of  her,  but,  worldly-wise,  set  detect- 
ives to  watch  her.  He  had,  you  may  say,  set  his 
heart  upon  her  guilt.  To  learn  that  she  was 
utterly  innocent  enraged  him.  One  day  he  had 
the  following  conversation  with  a  Mr.  May,  of  a 
private  detective  bureau: 

"You  followed  them?" 

"To  the  park." 

"Well?" 

"They  bought  a  bag  of  peanuts  and  fed  the 
squirrels." 

"Go  on." 

"Then  they  rode  in  a  swan-boat.  Then  they 
walked  up  to  the  reservoir  and  around  it.  Then 
they  came  back  to  the  hotel." 

"Did  they  separate  in  the  office?" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"On  the  sidewalk." 

"But  last  night  ?  She  said  she  was  dining  with 
her  sister  and  going  to  the  play.  What  did  she 
do  last  night?" 

"She  did  what  she  said.  Believe  me,  sir — if 
I  know  anything  of  men  and  women,  you're  pay- 
ing me  to  run  fool's  errands  for  you.  They  don't 
need  any  watching." 

"You  have  seen  them — kiss?" 

"Never." 

"Hold  hands?" 

"I  haven't  seen  any  physical  demonstration. 
I  guess  they  like  each  other  a  lot.  And  that's  all 
there  is  to  it." 

But  the  "old  man"  made  a  scene  with  her, 
just  such  a  scene  as  he  would  have  made  if  the 
detective's  report  had  been,  in  effect,  the  opposite 
of  what  it  was.  He  assumed  that  she  was  guilty; 
but,  for  dread  of  scandal,  he  would  not  seek  a 
divorce.  He  exacted  a  promise  that  she  would 
not  see  Arthur,  or  write  to  him,  or  receive  letters 
from  him. 

Then,  having  agreed  with  certain  magnates  to 
go  out  to  China  upon  the  question  of  a  great 
railroad  and  a  great  loan,  he  carried  her  off  with 
him,  then  and  there.  So  that  when  Arthur  called 
at  the  hotel,  he  was  told  that  they  had  gone  but 

42 


The  Seven  Darlings 

that  there  was  a  note  for  him.     If  it  was  from  the 
wife,  the  husband  had  dictated  it: 

Don't  try  to  see  me  ever  any  more.  If  you  do,  it 
will  only  make  my  life  a  hell  on  earth. 

That  had  been  the  tangible  end  of  Arthur's 
romance.  But  the  intangible  ends  were  infinite 
and  not  yet.  His  whole  nature  had  changed. 
He  had  suffered  and  could  no  longer  bear  to  in- 
flict pain. 

He  lifted  his  head  and  looked  up  a  little  slope 
of  snow.  Near  the  top,  wonderfully  rosy  and 
smiling,  sat  his  culprit  sisters.  He  had  forgotten 
why  he  had  come.  He  smiled  in  his  sudden  em- 
barrassment. 

"Don't  shoot,  colonel,"  called  Gay,  "and  we'll 
come  down." 

"Promise,  then,"  he  said,  "that  you'll  never  be 
naughty  again." 

"We  promise,"  they  said. 

And  they  trudged  back  to  camp,  with  jokes 
and  laughter  and  three  very  sharp  appetites. 


43 


VI 

BEYOND  seeing  to  it  that  the  alluring  pic- 
ture of  his  sisters  should  not  appear  in  any 
future  issues  of  the  magazines,  Arthur  did  not 
refer  to  the  matter  again.  The  girls,  more  par- 
ticularly Lee  and  Gay,  always  attributed  the  in- 
stant success  of  The  Camp  to  the  picture;  but  it 
is  sanely  possible  that  an  inn  run  upon  such  very 
extravagant  principles  was  bound  to  be  a  success 
anyway.  America  is  full  of  people  who  will  pay 
anything  for  the  comforts  of  home  with  the  cares 
and  exasperations  left  out. 

A  majority  of  the  early  applications  received 
at  The  Camp  office,  and  politely  rejected  by  Maud, 
were  from  old  friends  of  the  family,  who  were 
eagerly  willing  to  give  its  fallen  finances  a  boost. 
But  the  girls  were  determined  that  their  scheme 
should  stand  upon  its  own  meritorious  feet  or  not 
at  all. 

When  Samuel  Langham  learned  that  the  ice 
was  going  out  of  New  Moon  Lake,  he  wrote  that 
he  would  arrive  at  Carrytown  at  such  and  such 

44 


The  Seven  Darlings 

an  hour,  and  begged  that  a  boat  of  some  sort 
might  be  there  to  meet  him.  His  guests,  he  ex- 
plained, would  follow  in  a  few  days. 

"Dear  me,"  said  Maud,  "it  will  be  very  try- 
ing to  have  him  alone — just  like  a  real  guest. 
If  he'd  only  bring  his  friends  with  him,  why,  they 
could  entertain  him.  As  it  is,  we'll  have  to. 
Because,  even  if  we  are  innkeepers  now,  we  be- 
long to  the  same  station  in  life  that  he  does,  and 
he  knows  it  and  we  know  it.  I  don't  see  how  we 
can  ever  have  the  face  to  send  in  a  bill  afterward." 

"I  don't  either,"  said  Mary,  "but  we  must." 

"I've  never  pictured  him,"  said  Arthur,  "as  a 
man  who  would  brave  early  spring  in  the  Adiron- 
dacks  for  the  sake  of  a  few  trout." 

"I  bet  you  my  first  dividend,"  said  Lee,  "that 
his  coat  is  lined  with  sable." 

It  was. 

As  the  Streaky  which  had  gone  to  Carry  town 
to  meet  him,  slid  for  the  dock  (his  luggage  was  to 
follow  in  the  Tortoise,  a  fatter,  slower  power-boat), 
there  might  have  been  seen  standing  amidships 
a  tall,  stout  gentleman  of  about  thirty-six  or  more, 
enveloped  in  a  handsome  overcoat  lined  with 
sable. 

He  wore  thick  eye-glasses  which  the  swiftness 
of  the  Streak's  going  had  opaqued  with  icy  mist, 

45 


The  Seven  Darlings 

so  that  for  the  moment  Mr.  Samuel  Langham 
was  blind  as  a  mole.  Nevertheless,  determined 
to  enjoy  whatever  the  experience  had  in  store 
for  him,  he  beamed  from  right  to  left,  as  if  a  pair 
of  keen  eyes  were  revealing  to  him  unexpected 
beauties  and  delights. 

Arthur,  loathing  the  role,  was  on  the  float  to 
meet  him. 

On  hearing  himself  addressed  by  name,  Mr. 
Samuel  Larfgham  removed  one  of  his  fur-lined 
gloves  and  thrust  forward  a  plump,  well-groomed 
hand. 

"I  believe  that  I  am  shaking  hands  with  Mr. 
Darling,"  he  said  in  a  slow,  cultivated  voice; 
"but  my  glasses  are  blurred  and  I  cannot  see 
anything.  Is  my  foot  going  for  the  float — or  the 
water?" 

"Step  boldly,"  said  Arthur;  and,  in  a  hurried 
aside,  as  he  perceived  the  corner  of  a  neatly  folded 
greenback  protruding  between  two  of  Mr.  Lang- 
ham's  still-gloved  fingers:  "You  are  not  to  be 
subjected  to  the  annoyance  of  the  tipping  system. 
We  pay  our  servants  extra  to  make  the  loss  up  to 
them." 

Mr.  Langham's  mouth,  which  was  rather  like  a 
Cupid's  bow,  tightened.  And  he  handed  the  green- 
back to  the  engineer  of  the  Streak,  just  as  if  AT- 

46 


The  Seven  Darlings 

thur's  remonstrance  had  not  been  spoken.  On 
the  way  to  the  office  he  explained. 

"Whenever  I  go  anywhere,"  he  said,  "I  find 
persons  in  humble  situations  who  smile  at  me  and 
wish  me  well.  I  smile  back  and  wish  them  well. 
It  is  because,  at  some  time  or  other,  I  have 
tipped  them.  To  me  the  system  has  never  been  an 
annoyance  but  a  delightful  opportunity  for  the 
exercise  of  tact  and  judgment." 

He  came  to  a  dead  halt,  planting  his  feet  firmly. 

"I  shall  be  allowed  to  tip  whomsoever  I  like," 
he  said  flatly,  "or  I  shan't  stay." 

"Our  ambition,"  said  Arthur  stiffly,  "is  to  make 
our  guests  comfortable.  Our  rule  against  tipping 
is  therefore  abolished." 

They  entered  the  office.  Mr.  Langham  could 
now  see,  having  wiped  the  fog  from  his  glasses. 
He  saw  a  lovely  girl  in  black,  seated  at  a  table 
facing  him.  Beyond  her  was  a  roaring  fire  of 
backlogs.  Arthur  presented  Mr.  Langham. 

"Are  you  frozen?"  asked  Maud.  "Too  cold 
to  write  your  name  in  our  brand-new  regis- 
ter?" 

He  took  the  pen  which  she  offered  him  and  wrote 
his  name  in  a  large,  clear  hand,  worthy  of  John 
Hancock. 

"It's  the  first  name  in  the  book,"  he  said. 
47 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"It's  always  been  a  very  lucky  name  for  me.  I 
hope  it  will  be  for  you." 

Arthur  had  escaped. 

"There  is  one  more  formality,"  said  Maud: 
"breakfast." 

"I  had  a  little  something  in  my  car,"  said  Mr. 
Langham;  "but  if  it  wouldn't  be  too  much  trouble 
— er — just  a  few  little  eggs  and  things." 

"How  would  it  be,"  said  Maud,  "if  I  took 
you  straight  to  the  kitchen  ?  My  sister  Mary 
presides  there,  and  you  shall  tell  her  exactly  what 
you  want,  and  she  will  see  that  you  get  it." 

A  rosy  blush  mounted  Mr.  Langham's  good- 
natured  face. 

"Oh,"  he  said,  with  the  deepest  sincerity,  "if 
I  am  to  have  the  entree  to  the  kitchen,  I  shall  be 
happy.  I  will  tell  you  a  secret.  At  my  club  I 
always  breakfast  in  the  kitchen.  It's  against  the 
rules,  but  I  do  it.  A  friendly  chef — beds  of 
glowing  charcoal — burnished  copper — piping-hot 
tidbits." 

It  was  uphill  to  Smoke  House,  and  Mr.  Lang- 
ham,  in  his  burdensome  overcoat,  grew  warm  on 
the  way,  and  was  puffing  slightly  when  he  got 
there. 

"Mary,"  Maud  called— "Mr.  Langham!" 

"The  kitchen  is  the  foundation  of  all  domestic 
48 


The  Seven  Darlings 

happiness,"  said  he.  "I  have  come  to  yours  as 
fast  as  I  could.  I  think — I  know,  that  I  never 
saw  a  brighter,  happier-looking  kitchen." 

He  knew  also  that  he  had  never  seen  so  beauti- 
ful a  presiding  deity. 

"Your  sister,"  he  said,  "told  me  that  I  could 
have  a  little  breakfast  right  here."  And  he  re- 
peated the  statement  concerning  his  club  kitchen. 

"Of  course,  you  can!"  said  Mary. 

"Just  a  few  eggs,"  he  said,  "and  if  there's  any- 
thing green " 

They  called  the  chef.  He  was  very  happy 
because  the  season  had  begun.  He  assigned  Mr. 
Langham  a  seat  from  which  to  see  and  at  which 
to  be  served,  then  with  the  wrist-and-finger 
elegance  of  a  prestidigitator,  he  began  to  prepare 
a  few  eggs  and  something  green. 

"The  trout — "  Mary  began  dutifully,  as  it 
was  for  the  sake  of  these  that  Mr.  Langham  had 
ostensibly  come  so  early  in  the  season. 

"Trout?"  he  said. 

"The  fishing — "     She  made  a  new  beginning. 

"The  fishing,  Miss  Darling,"  he  said,  "will  be 
of  interest  to  my  friends.  For  my  part,  I  don't 
fish.  I  have,  in  common  with  the  kind  of  boat 
from  which  fishing  is  done,  nothing  but  the  fact 
that  we  are  both  ticklish.  I  saw  your  prospectus. 

49 


The  Seven  Darlings 

I  said:  *I  shall  be  happy  there,  and  well  taken 
care  of.'  Something  told  me  that  I  should  be  al- 
lowed to  breakfast  in  the  kitchen.  The  more  I 
thought  about  it  the  less  I  felt  that  I  could  wait 
for  the  somewhat  late  opening  of  your  season,  so 
I  pretended  to  be  a  fisher  of  trout.  And  here  I 
am.  But,  mark  you,"  he  added,  "a  few  trout 
on  the  table  now  and  then — I  like  that!" 

"You  shall  have  them,"  said  Mary,  "and  you 
shall  breakfast  in  the  kitchen.  I  do — always." 

"Do  you  ?"  he  exclaimed.  "Why  not  together, 
then?" 

His  eyes  shone  with  pleasure. 

"I  should  be  too  early  for  you,"  she  said. 

"You  don't  know  me.  Is  it  ever  too  early  to 
«at  ?  Because  I  am  stout,  people  think  I  have  all 
the  moribund  qualities  that  go  with  it.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  rise  whenever,  in  my  judgment, 
the  cook  is  dressed  and  down.  Is  it  gross  to  be 
fond  of  food  ?  So  many  people  think  so.  I  differ 
with  them.  Not  to  care  what  you  eat  is  gross — 
in  my  way  of  thinking.  Is  there  anything,  for 
instance,  more  fresh  in  coloring,  more  adequate 
in  line,  than  a  delicately  poached  egg  on  a  blue- 
and-white  plate  ?  You  call  this  building  Smoke 
House  ?  I  shall  always  be  looking  in.  Do  you 
mind?" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Indeed  we  don't,"  said  Mary.  "Do  we, 
chef?" 

Chef  laid  a  finger  to  his  lips.  It  was  no  time 
for  talk.  "Never  disturb  a  sleeping  child  or  a 
cooking  egg,"  was  one  of  his  maxims. 

"I  knew  that  I  should  be  happy  here,"  said 
Mr.  Langham.  "I  am." 

Whenever  he  had  a  chance  he  gazed  at  Mary. 
It  was  her  face  in  the  row  of  six  that  had  lured 
him  out  of  all  his  habits  and  made  him  feel  that 
the  camp  offered  him  a  genuine  chance  for  happi- 
ness. To  find  that  she  presided  over  the  kitchen 
had  filled  his  cup  to  the  brim.  But  when  he  re- 
membered that  he  was  fat  and  fond  of  good  things 
to  eat  and  drink,  his  heart  sank. 

He  determined  that  he  would  eat  but  three 
eggs.  They  were,  however,  prepared  in  a  way  that 
was  quite  new  to  him,  and  in  the  determined  effort 
to  discern  the  ingredients  and  the  method  he  ate 
five. 

"There  is  something  very  keen  about  your 
Adirondack  air,"  he  explained  guiltily. 

But  Mary  had  warmed  to  him.  Her  heart  and 
her  reputation  were  involved  in  the  cuisine.  She 
knew  that  the  better  you  feed  people  the  more 
they  love  you.  She  was  not  revolted  by  Mr. 
Langham's  appetite.  She  felt  that  even  a  canary 


The  Seven  Darlings 

of  a  man  must  have  fallen  before  the  temptation 
of  those  eggs. 

They  were  her  own  invention.  And  chef  had 
executed  them  to  the  very  turn  of  perfection. 

Almost  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival,  then, 
Mr.  Samuel  Langham  began  to  eat  his  way  into 
the  heart  of  the  eldest  Miss  Darling. 

In  culinary  matters  a  genuine  intimacy  sprang 
up  between  them.  They  exchanged  ideas.  They 
consulted.  They  compared  menus.  They  mas- 
tered the  contents  of  the  late  Mr.  Darling's 
cellars. 

Mr.  Langham  chose  Lone  House  for  his  habita- 
tion. He  liked  the  little  balcony  that  thrust  out 
over  the  lake  between  the  two  pine-trees.  And 
by  the  time  that  his  guests  were  due  to  arrive,  he 
had  established  himself,  almost,  in  the  affections 
of  the  entire  family. 

"He  may  be  greedy,"  said  Arthur,  "but  he's 
the  most  courteous  man  that  ever  'sat  at  meat 
among  ladies' !" 

"He's  got  the  kindest  heart,"  said  Mary, 
"that  ever  beat." 


VII 

MR.  LANGHAM'S  five  guests  arrived  some- 
what noisily,  smoking  five  long  cigars. 
Lee  and  Gay,  watching  the  float  from  a  point 
of  vantage,  where  they  themselves  were  free  from 
observation,  observed  that  three  of  the  trout 
fishermen  were  far  older  than  they  had  led  them- 
selves to  expect. 

"That  leaves  only  one  for  us,"  said  Gay. 

"Why?" 

"Can't  you  see  from  here  that  the  fifth  is  an 
Englishman  ?" 

"Yes,"  said  Lee.  "His  clothes  don't  fit,  and 
yet  he  feels  perfectly  comfortable  in  them." 

"It  isn't  so  much  the  clothes,"  said  Gay,  "as 
the  face.  The  other  faces  are  excited  because 
they  have  ridden  fast  in  a  fast  boat,  though  they've 
probably  often  done  it  before.  Now  he's  probably 
never  been  in  a  fast  boat  in  his  life  till  to-day, 
and  yet  he  looks  thoroughly  bored." 

The  Englishman  without  changing  his  expres- 
sion made  some  remark  to  the  other  five.  They 
roared.  The  Englishman  blushed,  and  looked 
vaguely  toward  a  dark-blue  mountain  that  rose 

S3 


The  Seven  Darlings 

with  some  grandeur  beyond  the  farther  shore  of 
the  lake. 

"Do  you  suppose,"  said  Lee,  "that  what  he 
said  was  funny  or  just  dumb  ?" 

"I  think  it  was  funny,"  said  Gay,  "but  purely 
accidental." 

"I  think  I  know  the  other  youth,"  said  Lee; 
"I  think  I  have  danced  with  him.  Didn't  Mr. 
Langham  say  there  was  a  Renier  among  his 
guests  ? " 

"H.  L.,"  Gay  assented. 

"That's  the  one,"  Lee  remembered.  "Harry 
Larkins  Renier.  We  have  danced.  If  he  doesn't 
remember,  he  shall  be  snubbed.  I  like  the  old 
guy  with  the  Mark  Twain  hair." 

"Don't  you  know  him?  I  do.  I  have  seen  his 
picture  often.  He's  the  editor  of  the  Evening  Star. 
Won't  Arthur  be  glad!" 

"What's  his  name?" 

"Walter  Leyden  O'Malley.  He's  the  literary 
descendant  of  the  great  Dana.  Don't  talk  to 
me,  child;  I  know  a  great  deal." 

Gay  endeavored  to  assume  the  look  of  an  en- 
cyclopaedia and  failed. 

"Mr.  Langham,"  said  Lee,  "mentioned  three 
other  names,  Alston,  Pritchard,  and  Cox.  Which 
do  you  suppose  is  which  ? " 

54 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  think  that  Pritchard  is  the  very  tall  one 
who  looks  like  a  Kentucky  colonel;  Cox  is  the  one 
with  the  very  large  face;  of  course,  the  English- 
man is  Alston." 

"I  don't." 

"We  can  find  out  from  Maud." 

When  the  new  arrivals,  escorted  by  Arthur  and 
Mr.  Langham,  had  left  the  office,  Lee  and  Gay 
hurried  in  to  look  at  their  signatures  and  to  con- 
sult Maud  as  to  identities. 

The  Kentucky-colonel-looking  man  proved  to 
be  Alston..  Cox  had  the  large  face,  and  the  Eng- 
lishman— John  Arthur  Merrivale  Pritchard,  as 
was  to  be  expected — wrote  the  best  hand.  Mr. 
O'Malley,  the  famous  editor,  wrote  the  worst. 
His  signature  looked  as  if  it  had  been  traced  by 
an  inky  worm  writhing  in  agony. 

"Tell  us  at  once,"  Gay  demanded,  "what  they 
are  like." 

Maud  regarded  her  frolicsome  sisters  with  in- 
scrutable eyes,  and  said: 

"At  first,  you  think  that  Mr.  Cox  is  a  heartless 
old  cynic,  but  when  you  get  to  know  him  really 
well — I  remember  an  instance  that  occurred  in 
the  early  sixties " 

"Oh,  dry  up!"  said  Lee.  "Are  they  nice  and 
presentable,  like  fat  old  Sam  Langham?" 

55 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"The  three  old  ones,"  said  Maud,  "made  me 
think  of  three  very  young  boys  just  loose  from 
school.  Messrs.  Renier  and  Pritchard,  however, 
seem  more  used  to  holidays.  There  is,  however, 
a  complication.  All  five  wish  to  go  fishing  as 
soon  as  they  can  change  into  fishing  clothes,  and 
there  aren't  enough  guides  to  go  around." 

"What's  the  trouble?"  asked  Gay  eagerly. 

"Bullard,"  Maud  explained,  "has  sent  word 
that  .his  wife  is  having  a  baby,  and  Benton  has 
gone  up  to  Crotched  Lake  West  to  see  if  the  ice 
is  out  of  it.  That  leaves  only  three  guides  to  go 
around.  Benton  oughtn't  to  have  gone.  Nobody 
told  him  to.  But  he  once  read  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  every  now  and  then  the  feeling 
comes  over  him  that  he  must  act  accordingly." 

"But,"  exclaimed  Lee,  "what's  the  matter 
with  Gay  and  me?" 

"Nothing,  I  hope,"  said  Maud;  "you  look 
well.  I  trust  you  feel  well." 

"We  want  to  be  guides,"  said  Gay;  "we  want 
to  be  useful.  Hitherto  we've  done  nothing  to 
help.  Mary  works  like  a  slave  in  the  kitchen; 
you  here.  Eve  will  never  leave  the  laundry  once 
the  wash  gets  big.  Phyllis  has  her  garden,  in 
which  things  will  begin  to  grow  by  and  by,  but  we 
— we  have  no  excuse  for  existence — none  what- 

56 


The  Seven  Darlings 

ever.  Now,  I  could  show  Mr.  Renier  where  the 
chances  of  taking  fish  are  the  best." 

"No,"  said  Lee  firmly;  "I  ought  to  guide  him. 
It's  only  fair.  He  once  guided  me — I've  always 
remembered — bang  into  a  couple  who  outweighed 
us  two  to  one,  and  down  we  went." 

"Mary  will  hardly  approve  of  you  youngsters 
going  on  long  expeditions  with  strange  young 
men,"  Maud  was  quite  sure;  "and,  of  course, 
Arthur  won't." 

Lee  and  Gay  began  to  sulk. 

At  that  moment  Arthur  came  into  the  office. 

"Halloo,  you  two  ! "  he  said.  " Been  looking  for 
you,  and  even  shouting.  The  fact  is,  we're  short 
of  guides,  and  Mary  and  I  think " 

Lee  and  Gay  burst  into  smiles. 

"What  did  we  tell  you,  Maud  ?  Of  course,  we 
will.  There  are  no  wiser  guides  in  this  part  of 
the  woods." 

"That,"  said  Arthur,  "is  a  fact.  The  older 
men  looked  alarmed  when  I  suggested  that  two 
of  my  sisters — you  see,  they've  always  had  native- 
born  woodsmen  and  even  Indians " 

"Then,"  said  Lee,  "we  are  to  have  the  guile- 
less youths.  I  speak  for  Renier." 

"Meanie,"  said  Gay. 

"Lee  ought  to  have  first  choice,"  said  Arthur. 
57 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"It's   always   been   supposed   that   Lee   is  your 
senior  by  a  matter  of  twenty  minutes." 

"True  or  not,"  said  Gay,  "she  looks  it.  Then 
I'm  to  guide  the  Englishman." 

"If  you  don't  mind."  Arthur  regarded  her, 
smiling.  He  couldn't  help  it.  She  was  so  pretty. 
"And  I'd  advise  you  not  to  be  too  eager  to  show 
off.  Mr.  Pritchard  has  hunted  and  fished  more 
than  all  of  us  put  together." 

"That  little  pink-faced  snip!"  exclaimed  Gay. 
"I'll  sure  see  how  much  he  knows." 

Half  an  hour  later  she  was  rowing  him  leisurely 
in  the  direction  of  Placid  Brook,  and  examining 
his  somewhat  remarkable  outfit  with  wondering 
eyes.  This  was  not  difficult,  since  his  own  eyes, 
which  were  clear  brown,  and  very  shy,  were  very 
much  occupied  in  looking  over  the  contents  of 
the  large-tackle  box. 

"If  you  care  to  rig  your  rod,"  said  Gay  pres- 
ently, "  and  cast  about  as  we  go,  you  might  take 
something  between  here  and  the  brook." 

"Do  you  mean,"  he  said,  "that  you  merely 
throw  about  you  at  random,  and  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  take  fish  ?" 

"Of  course,"  said  she — "when  they  are  rising. " 

"But  then  the  best  one  could  hope  for,"  he 
drawled,  "would  be  indiscriminate  fish." 

58 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Just  what  do  you  mean  by  that  ?" 

"Why!" — and  this  time  he  looked  up  and 
smiled  very  shyly — "if  you  were  after  elephant 
and  came  across  a  herd,  would  you  pick  out  a 
bull  with  a  fine  pair  of  tusks,  or  would  you  fire 
indiscriminately  into  the  thick  of  them,  and  per- 
haps bring  down  the  merest  baby?" 

"I  never  heard  of  picking  your  fish,"  said  Gay. 

"Dear  me,"  he  commented,  "then  you  have 
nearly  a  whole  lifetime  of  delightful  study  before 
you!" 

He  unslung  a  pair  of  field-glasses,  focussed  them, 
and  began  to  study  the  surface  of  the  placid  lake, 
not  the  far-off  surface  but  the  surface  within 
twenty  or  thirty  feet.  Then  he  remarked: 

"Your  flies  aren't  greatly  different  from  ours. 
I  think  we  shall  find  something  nearly  right. 
One  can  never  tell.  The  proclivities  of  trout  and 
char  differ  somewhat.  I  have  never  taken  char." 

"You  don't  think  you  are  after  char  now,  do 
you  ? "  exclaimed  Gay.  "  Because,  if  so — this 
lake  contains  bass,  trout,  lake-trout,  sunfish, 
shiners,  and  bullheads,  but  no  char." 

Pritchard  smiled  a  little  sadly  and  blushed. 
He  hated  to  put  people  right. 

"Your  brook-trout,"  he  said,  "y°ur  salmo 
Jontinalis,  isn't  a  trout  at  all.  He's  a  char." 

59 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Gay  put  her  back  into  the  rowing  with  some  tem- 
per. She  felt  that  the  Englishman  had  insulted 
the  greatest  of  all  American  institutions.  The  rep- 
artee which  sprang  to  her  lips  was  somewhat  feeble. 

"If  a  trout  is  a  char,"  she  said  angrily,  "then 
an  onion  is  a  fruit." 

To  her  astonishment,  Mr.  Pritchard  began  to 
laugh.  He  dropped  everything  and  gave  his 
whole  attention  to  it.  He  laughed  till  the  tears 
came  and  the  delicate  guide  boat  shook  from 
stem  to  stern.  Presently  the  germ  of  his  laughing 
spread,  and  Gay  came  down  with  a  sharp  attack 
of  it  herself.  She  stopped  rowing.  Two  miles 
off,  a  loon,  that  most  exclusive  laugher  of  the 
North  Woods,  took  fright,  dove,  and  remained 
under  for  ten  minutes. 

The  young  people  in  the  guide  boat  looked  at 
each  other  through  smarting  tears. 

"I  am  learning  fast,"  said  Gay,  "that  you  count 
your  fish  before  you  catch  them,  that  trout  are 
char,  and  that  Englishmen  laugh  at  other  people's 
jokes." 

She  rowed  on. 

"Don't  forget  to  tell  me  when  you've  chosen 
your  fish,"  she  remarked. 

"You  shall  help  me  choose,"  he  said;  "I  insist. 
I  speak  for  a  three-pounder." 

60 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"The  event  of  a  lifetime !" 

"Why,  Miss  Gay,"  he  said,  "it's  all  the  event 
of  a  lifetime.  The  Camp,  the  ride  in  the  motor- 
boat,  the  wonderful,  wonderful  breakfast,  water 
teeming  with  fish,  the  woods,  and  the  mountains 
—millions  of  years  ago  it  was  decreed  that  you 
and  I  should  rock  a  boat  with  laughter  in  the 
midst  of  New  Moon  Lake.  And  yet  you  speak 
of  a  three-pounder  as  the  event  of  a  lifetime ! 
My  answer  is  a  defiance.  We  shall  take  one 
salmo  fontinalis — one  wily  char.  He  shall  not 
weigh  three  pounds;  he  shall  weigh  a  trifle  more. 
Then  we  shall  put  up  our  tackle  and  go  home  to  a 
merry  dinner." 

"Mr.  Pritchard,"  said  Gay,  "I'll  bet  you  any- 
thing you  like  that  you  don't  take  a  trout — or  a 
char,  if  you  like — that  will  weigh  three  pounds 
or  over.  I'll  bet  you  ten  to  one." 

"Don't  do  that,"  he  said;  "it's  an  even  shot. 
What  will  you  bet  ?" 

"I'll  bet  you  my  prospective  dividends  for  the 
year,"  she  said,  "against " 

"My  prospective  title?" 

He  looked  rather  solemn,  but  laughter  bubbled 
from  Gay. 

"It's  a  good  sporting  proposition,"  said  Pritch- 
ard. "It's  a  very  sound  title — old,  resonant — 

61  • 


The  Seven  Darlings 

and  unless  you  upset  us  and  we  drown,  tolerably 
certain  to  be  mine  to  pay — in  case  I  lose." 

"I  don't  bet  blindly,"  said  Gay.  "What  is  the 
title?" 

"I  shall  be  the  Earl  of  Merrivale,"  said  he; 
"and  if  I  fail  this  day  to  take  a  char  weighing 
three  pounds  or  over,  you  will  be  the  Countess 
of  Merrivale." 

"Dear  me!"  said  Gay,  "who  ever  heard  of  so 
much  depending  on  a  mere  fish  ?  But  I  don't 
like  my  side  of  the  bet.  It's  all  so  sudden.  I 
don't  know  you  well  enough,  and  you're  sure  to 
lose." 

"I'll  take  either  end  of  the  bet  you  don't  like," 
said  Mr.  Pritchard  gravely.  "If  I  land  the  three- 
pounder,  you  become  the  countess;  if  I  don't,  I 
pay  you  the  amount  of  your  dividends  for  the 
year.  Is  that  better  ?" 

"Much,"  smiled  Gay;  "because,  with  the  bet 
in  this  form,  there  is  practically  no  danger  that 
either  of  us  will  lose  anything.  My  dividends 
probably  won't  amount  to  a  row  of  pins,  and  you 
most  certainly  will  not  land  so  big  a  fish." 

Meanwhile  they  had  entered  the  mouth  of 
Placid  Brook.  The  surface  was  dimpling — rings 
became,  spread,  merged  in  one  another,  and 
were  not.  The  fish  were  feeding. 

62 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Let  us  land  in  the  meadow,"  said  Mr.  Pritch- 
ard,  his  brown  eyes  clear  and  sparkling,  "and 
spy  upon  the  enemy." 

"Are  you  going  to  leave  your  rod  and  things 
in  the  boat?" 

"For  the  present — until  we  have  located  our 
fish." 

They  landed,  and  he  advanced  upon  the  brook 
by  a  detour,  stealthily,  crouching,  his  field-glasses 
at  attention.  Once  he  turned  and  spoke  to  Gay 
in  an  authoritative  whisper: 

"Try  not  to  show  above  the  bushes." 


VIII 

THE  sun  was  warm  on  the  meadow,  and  al- 
though the  bushes  along  its  margin  were 
leafless,  the  meadow  itself  had  a  greenish  look, 
and  the  feel  of  the  air  was  such  that  Gay,  upon 
whom  silence  and  invisibility  had  been  enjoined, 
longed  to  dance  in  full  sight  of  the  trout  and  to 
sing  at  the  top  of  her  voice:  "Oh,  that  we  two 
were  Maying!"  Instead,  she  crouched  humbly 
and  in  silence  at  Pritchard's  side,  while  he  studied 
the  dimpling  brook  through  his  powerful  field- 
glasses. 

Gay  had  never  seen  red  Indians  except  in 
Buffalo  Bill's  show,  where  it  is  made  worth  their 
while  to  be  very  noisy.  But  she  had  read  her 
Cooper  and  her  Ballantyne, 

"Ballantyne,  the  brave, 
And  Cooper  of  the  wood  and  wave," 

and  she  knew  of  the  early  Christian  patience  with 
which  they  are  supposed  to  go  about  the  business 
of  hunting  and  fishing. 

Pritchard,  she  observed,  had  a  weather-red 
face  and  high  cheek-bones.  He  was  smooth- 

64 


The  Seven  Darlings 

shaved.  He  wore  no  hat.  But  for  his  miracu- 
lously short-cut  hair,  his  field-glasses,  his  suit  of 
coarse  Scotch  wool,  whose  colors  blended  so  well 
with  the  meadow  upon  which  he  crouched,  he 
might  have  been  an  Indian.  His  head,  the  field- 
glasses,  the  hands  which  clasped  them,  moved — 
nothing  else. 

"Is  it  a  bluff?"  thought  Gay.  "Is  he  just 
posing,  or  is  there  something  in  it?" 

Half  an  hour  passed — three  quarters.  Gay  was 
pale  and  grimly  smiling.  Her  legs  had  gone  to 
sleep.  But  she  would  not  give  in.  If  an  Eng- 
lishman could  fish  so  patiently,  why,  so  could 
she.  She  was  fighting  her  own  private  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill — of  New  Orleans. 

Pritchard  lowered  his  glasses,  handed  them  to 
Gay,  and  pointed  up  the  brook  and  across,  to 
where  a  triangular  point  of  granite  peered  a  few 
inches  above  the  surface.  Gay  looked  through 
the  glasses,  and  Pritchard  began  to  whisper  in 
her  ear: 

"Northwest  of  that  point  of  rock,  about  two 
feet — keep  looking  just  there,  and  I'll  try  to  tell 
you  what  to  see." 

"There's  a  fish  feeding,"  she  answered;  "but 
he  must  be  a  baby,  he  just  makes  a  bubble  on 
the  surface." 

65 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"There  are  three  types  of  insect  floating  over 
him,"  said  Pritchard;  "I  don't  know  your  Amer- 
ican beasts  by  name,  but  there  is  a  black,  a  brown, 
and  a  grayish  spiderlike  thing.  He's  taking  the 
last.  If  you  see  one  of  the  gray  ones  floating 
where  he  made  his  last  bubble,  watch  it." 

Gay  presently  discerned  such  an  insect  so 
floating,  and  watched  it.  It  passed  within  a  few 
inches  of  where  the  feeding  trout  had  last  risen 
and  disappeared,  and  a  tiny  ring  gently  marked 
the  spot  where  it  had  been  sucked  under.  Gay 
saw  a  black  insect  pass  over  the  fatal  spot  un- 
scathed, then  browns;  and  then,  once  more,  a 
gray,  very  tiny  in  the  body  but  with  longish  legs, 
approached  and  was  engulfed. 

"Now  for  the  tackle  box,"  Pritchard  whispered. 

They  withdrew  from  the  margin  of  the  brook, 
Gay  in  that  curious  ecstasy,  half  joy,  half  sorrow, 
induced  by  sleepy  legs.  She  lurched  and  almost 
fell.  Pritchard  caught  her. 

"Was  the  vigil  too  long?"  he  asked. 

"I  liked  it,"  she  said.  "But  my  legs  went  to 
sleep  and  are  just  waking  up.  Tell  me  things. 
There  were  fish  rising  bold — jumping  clean  out 
— making  the  water  boil.  But  you  weren't  in- 
terested in  them." 

"It  was  noticeable,"  said  Pritchard,  "and  per- 
66 


The  Seven  Darlings 

haps  you  noticed  that  one  fish  was  feeding  alone. 
He  blew  his  little  rings — without  fear  or  hurry — 
none  of  the  other  fishes  dared  come  anywhere 
near  him.  He  lives  in  the  vicinity  of  that  pointed 
rock.  The  water  there  is  probably  deep  and,  in 
the  depths,  very  cold.  Who  knows  but  a  spring 
bubbles  into  a  brook  at  the  base  of  that  rock  ? 
The  fish  lives  there  and  rules  the  water  around 
him  for  five  or  six  yards.  He  is  selfish,  fat,  and 
old.  He  feeds  quietly  because  nobody  dares  dis- 
pute his  food  with  him.  He  is  the  biggest  fish 
in  this  reach  of  the  brook.  At  least,  he  is  the 
biggest  that  is  feeding  this  morning.  Now  we 
know  what  kind  of  a  fly  he  is  taking.  Probably  I 
have  a  close  imitation  of  it  in  my  fly  box.  If 
not,  we  shall  have  to  make  one.  Then  we  must 
try  to  throw  it  just  above  him — very  lightly — 
float  it  into  his  range  of  vision,  and  when  he 
sucks  it  into  his  mouth,  strike — and  if  we  are 
lucky  we  shall  then  proceed  to  take  him." 

Gay,  passionately  fond  of  woodcraft,  listened 
with  a  kind  of  awe. 

"But,"  she  said,  seeing  an  objection,  "how  do 
you  know  he  weighs  three  pounds  and  over?" 

"Frankly,"  said  Pritchard,  "I  don't.  I  am 
gambling  on  that."  He  shot  her  a  shy  look. 
"Just  hoping.  I  know  that  he  is  big.  I  believe 

67 


The  Seven  Darlings 

we  shall  land  him.  I  hope  and  pray  that  he 
weighs  over  three  pounds." 

Gay  blushed  and  said  nothing.  She  was  be- 
ginning to  think  that  Pritchard  might  land  a 
three-pounder  as  well  as  not — and  she  had  light- 
heartedly  agreed,  in  that  event,  to  become  the 
Countess  of  Merrivale.  Of  course,  the  bet  was 
mere  nonsense.  But  suppose,  by  any  fleeting 
chance,  that  Pritchard  should  not  so  regard  it  ? 
What  should  she  do  ?  Suppose  that  Pritchard 
had  fallen  victim  to  a  case  of  love  at  first  sight  ? 
It  would  not,  she  was  forced  to  admit  (somewhat 
demurely),  be  the  first  instance  in  her  own  actual 
experience.  There  was  a  young  man  who  had  so 
fallen  in  love  with  her,  and  who,  a  week  later, 
not  knowing  the  difference — so  exactly  the 
triplets  resembled  each  other — had  proposed  to 
Phyllis. 

They  drew  the  guide  boat  up  onto  the  meadows 
and  Pritchard,  armed  with  a  scoop-net  of  mesh  as 
fine  as  mosquito-netting,  leaned  over  the  brook 
and  caught  one  of  the  grayish  flies  that  were 
tickling  the  appetite  of  the  big  trout. 

This  fly  had  a  body  no  bigger  than  a  gnat's. 

Pritchard  handed  Gay  a  box  of  japanned  tin. 
It  was  divided  into  compartments,  and  each  com- 
partment was  half  full  of  infinitesimal  trout  flies. 

68 


The  Seven  Darlings 

They  were  so  small  that  you  had  to  use  a  pair  of 
tweezers  in  handling  them. 

Pritchard  spread  his  handkerchief  on  the  grass, 
and  Gay  dumped  the  flies  out  on  it  and  spread 
them  for  examination.  And  then,  their  heads 
very  close  together,  they  began  to  hunt  for  one 
which  would  match  the  live  one  that  Pritchard 
had  caught. 

"But  they're  too  small,"  Gay  objected.  "The 
hooks  would  pull  right  through  a  trout's  lip." 

"Not  always,"  said  Pritchard.  "How  about 
this  one  ?" 

"Too  dark,"  said  Gay. 

"  Here  we  are  then — a  match  or  not  ? " 

The  natural  fly  and  the  artificial  placed  side  by 
side  were  wonderfully  alike. 

"They're  as  like  as  Lee  and  me,"  said  Gay. 

"Lee?" 

"Three  of  us  are  triplets,"  she  explained. 
"We  look  exactly  alike — and  we  never  forgive 
people  who  get  us  mixed  up." 

Pritchard  abandoned  all  present  thoughts  of 
trout-fishing  by  scientific  methods.  He  looked 
into  her  face  with  wonder. 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  said  he,  "that  there 
are  two  other  D-D-Darlings  exactly  like  you?" 

"Exactly — a  nose  for  a  nose;  an  eye  for  an  eye." 
69 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"It  isn't  true,"  he  proclaimed.  "There  is  no- 
body in  the  whole  world  in  the  least  like  you." 

"Some  time,"  said  Gay,  "you  will  see  the  three 
of  us  in  a  row.  We  shall  look  inscrutable  and  say 
nothing.  You  will  not  be  able  to  tell  which  of 
us  went  fishing  with  you  and  which  stayed  at 
home " 

"  'This  little  pig  went  to  market,'  "  he  began, 
and  abruptly  became  serious.  "Is  that  a  chal- 
lenge?" 

"Yes,"  said  Gay.    "I  fling  down  my  gauntlet." 

"And  I,"  said  Pritchard,  "step  forward  and, 
in  the  face  of  all  the  world,  lift  it  from  the  ground 
— and  proclaim  for  all  the  world  to  hear  that 
there  is  nobody  like  my  lady — and  that  I  am  so 
prepared  to  prove  at  any  place  or  time — come 
weal,  come  woe.  Let  the  heavens  fall !" 

"If  you  know  me  from  the  others,"  Gay's  eyes 
gleamed,  "you  will  be  the  first  strange  young  man 
that  ever  did,  and  I  shall  assign  and  appoint  in 
the  inmost  shrines  of  memory  a  most  special 
niche  for  you." 

Pritchard  bowed  very  humbly. 

"That  will  not  be  necessary,"  he  said.  "If  I 
land  the  three-pounder.  In  that  case,  I  should 
be  always  with  you." 

"I  wish,"  said  Gay,  "that  you  wouldn't  refer 
70 


The  Seven  Darlings 

so  earnestly  to  a  piece  of  nonsense.  Upon  repeti- 
tion, a  joke  ceases  to  be  a  joke." 

Pritchard  looked  troubled. 

"I'm  sorry,"  he  said  simply.  "If  it  is  the 
custom  of  the  country  to  bet  and  then  crawl,  so 
be  it.  In  Rome,  I  hasten  to  do  as  the  Romans  do. 
But  I  thought  our  bet  was  honorable  and  above- 
board.  It  seems  it  was  just  an — an  Indian  bet." 

Gay  flushed  angrily. 

"You  shall  not  belittle  anything  American," 
she  said.  "It  was  a  bet.  I  meant  it.  I  stand  by 
it.  If  you  catch  your  big  fish  I  marry  you.  And 
if  I  have  to  marry  you,  I  will  lead  you  such  a 
dance " 

"You  wouldn't  have  to,"  Pritchard  put  in 
gently,  "you  wouldn't  have  to  lead  me,  I  mean. 
If  you  and  I  were  married,  I'd  just  naturally 
dance — wouldn't  I  ?  When  a  man  sorrows  he 
weeps;  when  he  rejoices  he  dances.  It's  all  very 
simple  and  natural " 

He  turned  his  face  to  the  serene  heavens,  and, 
very  gravely: 

"Ah,  Lord!"  he  said.  "Vouchsafe  to  me,  un- 
deserving but  hopeful,  this  day,  a  char — salmo 
fontinalis — to  weigh  a  trifle  over  three  pounds, 
for  the  sake  of  all  that  is  best  and  sweetest  in  this 
best  of  all  possible  worlds." 


\ 

The  Seven  Darlings 

If  his  face  or  voice  had  had  a  suspicion  of 
irreverence,  Gay  would  have  laughed.  Instead, 
she  found  that  she  wanted  to  cry  and  that  her 
heart  was  beating  unquietly. 

Mr.  Pritchard  dismissed  sentiment  from  his 
mind,  and  with  loving  hands  began  to  take  a 
powerful  split-bamboo  rod  from  its  case. 


IX 

GAY'S  notion  of  scientific  fishing  might  have 
been  thus  summed:  Know  just  where  to 
fish  and  use  the  lightest  rod  made.  Her  own 
trout-rod  weighed  two  and  a  half  ounces  with- 
out the  reel.  Compared  to  it,  Pritchard's  was  a 
coarse  and  heavy  instrument.  His  weighed  six 
ounces. 

"You  could  land  a  salmon  with  that,"  said 
Gay  scornfully. 

"I  have,"  said  Pritchard.  "It's  a  splendid 
rod.  I  doubt  if  you  could  break  it." 

"Doesn't  give  the  fish  much  of  a  run  for  his 
money." 

"But  how  about  this,  Miss  Gay?" 

He  showed  her  a  leader  of  finest  water-blue 
catgut.  It  was  nine  feet  long  and  tapered  from 
the  thickness  of  a  human  hair  to  that  of  a  thread 
of  spider-spinning.  Gay's  waning  admiration 
glowed  once  more. 

"That  wouldn't  hold  a  minnow,"  she  said. 

"We  must  see  about  that,"  he  answered;  "we 
must  hope  that  it  will  hold  a  very  large  char." 

73 


The  Seven  Darlings 

He  reeled  off  eighty  or  ninety  feet  of  line,  and 
began  to  grease  it  with  a  white  tallow. 

"What's  that  stuff?"  Gay  asked. 

"Red-deer  fat." 

"What  for?" 

"To  make  the  line  float.  We're  fishing  with  a 
dry-fly,  you  know." 

Gay  noticed  that  the  line  was  tapered  from 
very  heavy  to  very  fine. 

"Why  is  that?"  she  asked. 

"It  throws  better — especially  in  a  wind.  The 
heavy  part  will  carry  a  fly  out  into  half  a 
gale." 

He  reeled  in  the  line  and  made  his  leader  fast 
to  it  with  a  swift,  running  hitch,  and  to  the  fine 
end  of  the  leader  he  attached  the  fly  which  they 
had  chosen.  Upon  this  tiny  and  exquisite  ar- 
rangement of  fairy  hook,  gray  silk,  and  feathers, 
he  blew  paraffin  from  a  pocket  atomizer  that  it 
might  float  and  not  become  water-logged. 

"Do  we  fish  from  the  shore  or  the  boat  ?"  Gay 
asked. 

"From  this  shore." 

"You'll  never  reach  there  from  this  shore.'* 

"Then  I've  misjudged  the  distance.  Are  you 
going  to  use  the  landing-net  for  me,  in  case  it's 
necessary  ?" 

74 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Gay  caught  up  the  net  and  once  more  followed 
his  stealthy  advance  upon  the  brook. 

Pritchard  had  one  preliminary  look  through 
the  field-glasses,  straightened  his  bent  back, 
turned  to  her  with  a  sorrowing  face,  and  spoke 
aloud. 

"He's  had  enough,"  he  said.  "He's  stopped 
feeding." 

Gay  burst  out  laughing. 

"And  our  fishing  is  over  for  the  day?  This 
shall  be  said  of  you,  Mr.  Pritchard,  that  you  are 
a  merciful  man.  You  are  not  what  is  called  in 
this  country  a  'game  hog.'  ' 

"Thank  you,"  he  said  gravely.  "But  if  you 
think  the  fishing  is  over  for  the  day,  you  don't 
know  a  dry-fly  fisherman  when  you  see  one.  We 
made  rather  a  late  start.  See,  most  of  the  fish 
have  stopped  feeding.  They  won't  begin  again 
much  before  three.  The  big  fellow  will  be  a  little 
later.  He  has  had  more  than  the  others;  he  is 
older;  his  digestion  is  no  longer  like  chain  light- 
ning; he  will  sleep  sounder,  and  dream  of  the 
golden  days  of  his  youth  when  a  char  was  a 
trout." 

"  That"  said  Gay,  "is  distinctly  unkind.  I 
have  been  snubbed  enough  for  one  day.  Are  we 
to  stand  here,  then,  till  three  or  four  o'clock,  till 

75 


The  Seven  Darlings 

his  royal  highness  wakes  up  and  calls  for  break- 
fast?" 

"No,"  said  Pritchard;  "though  I  would  do  so 
gladly,  if  it  were  necessary,  in  order  to  take  this 
particular  fish " 

"You  might  kneel  before  your  rod,"  said  Gay, 
"like  a  knight  watching  his  arms." 

"To  rise  in  the  morning  and  do  battle  for  his 
lady — I  repeat  I  should  do  so  gladly  if  it  would 
help  my  chances  in  the  slightest.  But  it  would- 
n't." 

He  rested  his  rod  very  carefully  across  two 
bushes. 

"The  thing  for  us  to  do,"  he  went  on,  "is  to 
have  lunch.  I've  often  heard  of  how  comfort- 
able you  American  guides  can  make  the  weary, 
wayworn  wanderer  at  the  very  shortest  notice." 

"Is  that  a  challenge?" 

"It  is  an  expression  of  faith." 

Their  eyes  met,  and  even  lingered. 

"In  that  case,"  said  Gay,  "I  shall  do  what  I 
may.  There  is  cold  lunch  in  the  boat,  but  the 
wayworn  one  shall  bask  in  front  of  a  fire  and  look 
upon  his  food  when  it  is  piping  hot.  Come!" 

Gay  rowed  him  out  of  the  brook  and  along  the 
shore  of  the  lake  for  a  couple  of  miles.  She  was 
on  her  mettle.  She  wished  him  to  know  that  she 

76 


The  Seven  Darlings 

was  no  lounger  in  woodcraft.  She  put  her  strong 
young  back  into  the  work  of  rowing,  and  the 
fragile  guide  boat  flew.  Her  cheeks  glowed,  and 
her  lips  were  parted  in  a  smile,  but  secretly  she 
was  rilled  with  dread.  She  knew  that  she  had 
brought  food,  raw  and  cooked;  she  could  see  the 
head  of  her  axe  gleaming  under  the  middle  seat; 
she  would  trust  Mary  for  having  seen  to  it  that 
there  was  pepper  and  salt;  but  whether  in  the 
pocket  of  the  Norfolk  jacket  there  were  matches, 
she  could  not  be  sure.  If  she  stopped  rowing  to 
look,  the  Englishman  would  think  that  she  had 
stopped  because  she  was  tired.  And  if,  later,  it 
was  found  that  she  had  come  away  without 
matches,  he  would  laugh  at  her  and  her  pretenses 
to  being  a  "perfectly  good  guide." 

She  beached  the  boat  upon  the  sand  in  a 
wooded  cove,  and  before  Pritchard  could  move 
had  drawn  it  high  and  dry  out  of  the  water. 
Then  she  laughed  aloud,  and  would  not  tell  him 
why.  She  had  discovered  in  the  right-hand 
pocket  of  her  coat  two  boxes  of  safety-matches, 
and  in  the  left  pocket  three. 

"Don't,"  said  Gay,  "this  is  my  job." 
She  lifted  the  boat  easily  and  carried  it  into 
the  woods.     Pritchard  had  wished  to  help.     She 
laid  the  boat  upon  soft  moss  at  the  side  of  a  nar- 

77 


The  Seven  Darlings 

row,  mounting  trail,  slung  the  package  of  lunch 
upon  her  shoulders,  and  caught  up  her  axe. 

"Don't  I  help  at  all?"  asked  Pritchard. 

"You  are  weary  and  wayworn,"  said  Gay, 
"and  I  suppose  I  ought  to  carry  you,  too.  But 
I  can't.  Can  you  follow  ?  It's  not  far." 

A  quarter  of  a  mile  up  the  hillside,  between 
virgin  pines  which  made  one  think  bitterly  of 
what  the  whole  mountains  might  be  if  the  science 
of  forestry  had  been  imported  a  little  earlier  in 
the  century,  the  steep  and  stony  trail  ended  in 
an  open  space,  gravelly  and  abounding  in  huge 
bowlders,  upon  which  the  sun  shone  warm  and 
bright.  In  the  midst  of  the  place  was  a  spring, 
black  and  slowly  bubbling.  At  the  base  of  one 
great  rock,  a  deep  rift  in  whose  face  made  a 
natural  chimney,  were  traces  of  former  fires. 

"Wait  here,"  commanded  Gay. 

Her  axe  sounded  in  a  thicket,  and  she  emerged 
presently  staggering  under  a  load  of  balsam. 
She  spread  it  in  two  great,  fragrant  mats.  Then 
once  more  she  went  forth  with  her  axe  and  re- 
turned with  fire-wood. 

Pritchard,  a  wistful  expression  in  his  eyes, 
studied  her  goings  and  her  comings,  and  listened 
a^  to  music,  to  the  sharp,  true  ringing  of  her 
axe. 

78 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"By  Jove,"  said  he  to  himself,  "that  isn't 
perspiration  on  her  forehead — it's  honest  sweat !" 

In  spite  of  the  bright  sunshine,  the  heat  of  the 
fire  was  wonderfully  welcome,  and  began  to 
bring  out  the  strong,  delicious  aroma  of  the  bal- 
sam. Gay  sat  upon  her  heels  before  the  fire  and 
cooked.  There  was  a  sound  of  boiling  and  bub- 
bling. The  fragrance  of  coffee  mingled  with  the 
balsam  and  floated  heavenward.  During  the  swift 
preparation  of  lunch  they  hardly  spoke.  Twice 
Pritchard  begged  to  help  and  was  twice  refused. 

She  spread  a  cloth  between  the  mats  of  balsam 
upon  one  of  which  Pritchard  reclined,  and  she 
laid  out  hot  plates  and  bright  silver  with  demure 
precision. 

"Miss  Gay,"  he  said  very  earnestly,  "I  came 
to  chuckle;  I  thought  that  at  least  you  would 
burn  the  chicken  and  get  smoke  in  your  eyes, 
but  I  remain  to  worship  the  deity  of  woodcraft. 
An  Indian  could  not  do  more  swiftly  or  so 
well." 

Gay  swelled  a  little.  She  had  worked  very 
hard;  nothing  had  gone  wrong,  so  far.  She  was 
not  in  the  least  ashamed  of  herself.  But  her 
greatest  triumph  was  to  come. 

Uncas,  the  chipmunk,  had  that  morning  gone 
for  a  stroll  in  the  forest.  He  had  the  spring  fever. 

79 


The  Seven  Darlings 

He  had  crossed  Placid  Brook,  by  a  fallen  log;  he 
had  climbed  trees,  hunted  for  last  year's  nuts, 
and  fought  battles  of  repartee  with  other  chip- 
munks. About  lunch  time,  thinking  to  return  to 
Arthur  and  recount  the  tale  of  his  wanderings, 
he  smelled  a  smell  of  cooking  and  heard  a  sound 
of  voices,  one  of  which  was  familiar  to  him.  He 
climbed  a  bowlder  overlooking  the  clearing,  and 
began  to  scold.  Gay  and  Pritchard  looked  up. 

"My  word!"  said  Pritchard,  "what  a  bold 
little  beggar." 

Now,  to  Gay,  the  figure  of  Uncas,  well  larded 
with  regular  meals,  was  not  to  be  confounded 
with  the  slim  little  stripes  of  the  spring  woods. 
She  knew  him  at  once,  and  she  spoke  nonchalantly 
to  Pritchard. 

"If  you're  a  great  deal  in  the  woods,"  she 
said,  "you  scrape  acquaintance  with  many  of 
the  inhabitants.  That  little  pig  and  I  are  old 
friends.  You  embarrass  him  a  little.  He  doesn't 
know  you.  If  you  weren't  here,  he'd  come  right 
into  my  lap  and  beg." 

Pritchard  looked  at  her  gravely. 

"Truly?  "he  said. 

"I  think  he  will  anyway,"  said  Gay,  and  she 
made  sounds  to  Uncas  which  reassured  him  and 
brought  him  presently  on  a  tearing  run  for  her 

80 


The  Seven  Darlings 

lap.  Here,  when  he  had  been  fed,  he  yawned, 
stretched  himself,  and  fell  asleep. 

"Mowgli's  sister!"  said  Pritchard  reverently. 
"Child,  are  there  the  scars  of  wolves'  teeth  on 
your  wrists  and  ankles  ?" 

"No,  octogenarian,"  said  Gay;  "there  aren't 
any  marks  of  any  kind.  What  time  is  it  ?" 

"It  is  half-past  two." 

"Then  you  shall  smoke  a  cigarette,  while  I  wash 
dishes." 

She  slid  the  complaining  Uncas  from  her  lap  to 
the  ground. 

"Unfortunately,"  said  Pritchard,  "I  didn't 
bring  a  cigarette." 

"And  you've  been  dying  for  a  smoke  all  this 
time  ?  Why  don't  you  ask  the  guide  for  what 
you  want  ? " 

"Have  you  such  a  thing?" 

"I  have." 

"But  you — you  yourself  don't — do  you  ?"  He 
looked  troubled. 

"No,"  said  Gay.  "But  my  father  was  always 
forgetting  his,  and  it  made  him  so  miserable  I 
got  into  the  habit  of  carrying  a  full  case  years 
ago  whenever  we  went  on  expeditions.  He  used 
to  be  so  surprised  and  delighted.  Sometimes 
I  think  he  used  to  forget  his  on  purpose,  so 

81 


The  Seven  Darlings 

that  I  could  have  the  triumph  of  producing 
mine." 

Pritchard  smoked  at  ease.  Gay  "washed  up." 
Uncas,  roused  once  more  from  slumber  by  the 
call  of  one  of  his  kind,  shook  himself  and  trotted 
off  into  the  forest. 

Gay,  scouring  a  pan,  was  beginning  to  feel  that 
she  had  known  Pritchard  a  long  time.  She  had 
made  him  comfortable,  cared  for  him  in  the  wild 
woods,  and  the  knowledge  warmed  her  heart. 

Pritchard  was  saying  to  himself: 

"We  like  the  same  sort  of  things — why  not 
each  other?" 

"Miss  Gay,"  he  said  aloud. 

"What?" 

"In  case  I  land  the  three-pounder  and  over,  I 
think  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  I'm  not  very  rich, 
and  I  know  you  aren't.  Would  that  matter  to 
you  ?  I've  just  about  enough,"  he  went  on  tan- 
talizingly,  "to  take  a  girl  on  ripping  good  trips 
into  central  Africa  or  Australia,  but  I  can't  keep 
any  great  state  in  England — Merrivale  isn't  a 
show  place,  you  know — just  a  few  grouse  and 
pheasants  and  things,  and  pretty  good  fishin'." 

"However  much,"  said  Gay,  "I  may  regret 
my  bety  there  was  nothing  Indian  about  it.  I'm 
sure  that  you  are  a  clean,  upright  young  man. 

82 


The  Seven  Darlings 

I'm  a  decent  sort  of  girl,  though  I  say  it  that 
shouldn't.  We  might  do  worse.  I've  heard  that 
love-matches  aren't  always  what  they  are  cracked 
up  to  be.  And  I'm  quite  sure  that  I  want  to  go 
to  Africa  and  hunt  big  game." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Pritchard  humbly.  "And 
at  least  there  would  be  love  on  one  side." 

"Nonsense,"  said  Gay  briskly.  "I'm  ready,  if 
you  are." 

Pritchard  jumped  to  his  feet  and  threw  away 
his  cigarette. 

"Now,"  he  said,  "that  you've  proved  every- 
thing, wont  you  let  me  help  ? " 

Gay  refused  him  doubtfully,  and  then  with  a 
burst  of  generosity: 

"Why,  yes,"  she  said,  "and,  by  the  way,  Mr. 
Pritchard,  there  was  no  magic  about  the  chip- 
munk. He's  one  my  brother  trained.  He  lives 
at  The  Camp,  and  he  was  just  out  for  a  stroll  and 
happened  in  on  us.  I  don't  want  you  to  find  out 
that  I'm  a  fraud  from  any  one — but  me." 


X 

THE  big  trout  was  once  more  feeding.  And 
Pritchard  began  to  cast  his  diminutive  fly 
up-stream  and  across.  But  he  cast  and  got  out 
line  by  a  system  that  was  new  to  Gay.  He  did 
not  "whip"  the  brook;  he  whipped  the  air  above 
it.  He  never  allowed  his  fly  to  touch  the  water 
but  drew  it  back  sharply,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
reeled  out  more  line  with  his  left  hand,  when  it 
had  fallen  to  within  an  inch  or  two  of  the  surface. 
His  casts,  straight  as  a  rifle-shot,  lengthened,  and 
reached  out  toward  the  bowlder  point  near  which 
the  big  trout  was  feeding,  until  he  was  throwing, 
and  with  consummate  ease,  a  line  longer  than 
Gay  had  ever  seen  thrown. 

"It's  beautiful,"  she  whispered.  "Will  you 
teach  me?" 

"Of  course,"  he  answered. 

His  fly  hovered  just  above  the  ring  which  the 
trout  had  just  made.  Pritchard  lengthened  his 
line  a  foot,  and  cast  again  and  again,  with  no 
further  change  but  of  an  inch  or  two  in  direction. 

"There's  a  little  current,"  he  explained.  "If 
84 


The  Seven  Darlings 

we  dropped  the  fly  into  the  middle  of  the  ring,  it 
would  float  just  over  his  tail  and  he  wouldn't  see 
it.  He's  looking  up-stream,  whence  his  blessings 
flow.  The  fly  must  float  straight  down  at  him, 
dragging  its  leader,  and  not  dragged  by  it." 

All  the  while  he  talked,  he  continued  casting 
with  compact,  forceful  strokes  of  his  right  wrist 
and  forearm.  At  last,  his  judgment  being  satis- 
fied by  the  hovering  position  attained  by  fly  and 
leader,  he  relaxed  his  grip  of  the  rod;  the  fly  fell 
upon  the  water  like  thistle-down,  floated  five  or 
six  inches,  and  was  sucked  under  by  the  big  trout. 

Pritchard  struck  hard. 

There  was  a  second's  pause,  while  the  big  trout, 
pained  and  surprised,  tried  to  gather  his  scattered 
wits.  Three  quarters  of  Pritchard's  line  floated 
loosely  across  the  brook,  but  the  leader  and  the 
fly  remained  under,  and  Pritchard  knew  that  he 
had  hooked  his  fish. 

Then,  and  it  was  sudden — like  an  explosion — 
the  whole  length  of  floating  line  disappeared, 
and  the  tip  of  Pritchard's  powerful  rod  was 
dragged  under  after  it. 

The  reel  screamed. 

"It's  a  whale!"  shouted  Gay,  forgetting  how 
much  depended  upon  the  size  of  the  fish,  "a 
whale!" 

85 


The  Seven  Darlings 

The  time  for  stealthy  movements  and  talk  in 
whispers  was  over.  Gay  laughed,  shouted,  ex- 
horted, while  Pritchard,  his  lips  parted,  his  cheeks 
flushed,  gayly  fought  the  great  fish. 

"Go  easy;  go  easy!"  cried  Gay.  "That  hook 
will  never  hold  him." 

But  Pritchard  knew  his  implements,  and  fished 
with  a  kind  of  joyous,  strong  fury. 

"When  you  hang  *em,"  he  exulted,  "land 
'em." 

The  trout  was  a  great  noble  potentate  of  those 
waters.  Years  ago  he  had  abandoned  the  stealthy 
ways  of  lesser  fish.  He  came  into  the  middle  of 
the  brook  where  the  water  is  deep  and  there  is 
freedom  from  weeds  and  sunken  timber,  and  then 
up  and  down  and  across  and  across,  with  blind, 
furious  rushes  he  fought  his  fight. 

It  was  the  strong  man  without  science  against 
the  strong  man  who  knows  how  to  box.  The 
steady,  furious  rushes,  snubbed  and  controlled, 
became  jerky  and  spasmodic;  in  a  roar  and  swirl 
of  water  the  king  trout  showed  his  gleaming  and 
enormous  back;  a  second  later  the  sunset  colors 
of  his  side  and  the  white  of  his  belly.  Inch  by 
inch,  swollen  by  impotent  fury,  galvanic  ally 
struggling  and  rushing,  he  followed  the  drag  of 
the  leader  toward  the  beach,  where,  ankle-deep 

86 


The  Seven  Darlings 

in  the  water,  Gay  crouched  with  the  landing- 
net. 

She  trembled  from  head  to  foot  as  a  well-bred 
pointer  trembles  when  he  has  found  a  covey  of 
quail  and  holds  them  in  control,  waiting  for  his 
master  to  walk  in  upon  them. 

The  big  trout,  still  fighting,  turning,  and  raging, 
came  toward  the  mouth  of  the  half-submerged  net. 

"How  big  is  he,  Miss  Gay  ?" 

The  voice  was  cool  and  steady. 

"He's  five  pounds  if  he's  an  ounce,"  her  voice 
trembled.  "He's  the  biggest  trout  that  ever 
swam." 

"He  isn't  a  trout,"  said  Pritchard;  "he's  a 
char." 

If  Gay  could  have  seen  Pritchard's  face,  she 
would  have  been  struck  for  the  first  time  by  a 
sort  of  serene  beauty  that  pervaded  some  of  its 
expressions.  The  smile  which  he  turned  upon 
her  crouching  figure  had  in  it  a  something  almost 
angelic. 

"Bring  him  a  little  nearer,"  she  cried,  "just  a 
little." 

"You're  sure  he  weighs  more  than  three 
pounds  ?" 

"Sure  —  sure  —  don't    talk,    land    him,    land 

him " 

87 


The  Seven  Darlings 

For  answer  Pritchard  heaved  strongly  upward 
upon  his  rod  and  lifted  the  mighty  fish  clear  of 
the  water.  One  titanic  convulsion  of  tortured 
muscles,  and  what  was  to  be  expected  happened. 
The  leader  broke  a  few  inches  from  the  trout's 
lip,  and  he  returned  splashing  to  his  native  ele- 
ment, swam  off  slowly,  just  under  the  surface, 
then  dove  deep,  and  was  seen  no  more. 

"Oh!"  cried  Gay.  "Why  did  you?  Why 
did  you  ?" 

She  had  forgotten  everything  but  the  fact 
that  the  most  splendid  of  all  trout  had  been 
lost. 

"Why  did  you?"  she  cried  again. 

"Because,"  he  said  serenely  and  gently,  smil- 
ing into  her  grieved  and  flushed  face,  "I  wouldn't 
have  you  as  the  payment  of  a  bet.  I  will  have 
you  as  a  gift  or  not  at  all." 

They  returned  to  The  Camp,  Pritchard  rowing. 

"I  owe  you  your  prospective  dividends  for  the 
year,"  he  said.  "If  they  are  large,  I  shall  have 
to  give  you  my  note  and  pay  as  I  can." 

She  did  not  answer. 

"I  think  you  are  angry  with  me,"  he  said. 
"I'd  give  more  than  a  penny  for  your  thoughts." 

"I  was  thinking,"  said  she,  "that  you  are 
very  good  at  fishing,  but  that  the  art  of  rowing 

88 


The  Seven  Darlings 

an  Adirondack  guide  boat  has  been  left  out  of 
you." 

"Truly,"  he  said,  "was  that  what  you  were 
thinking?" 

"No,"  she  said;  "I  was  thinking  other  things. 
I  was  thinking  that  I  ought  to  go  down  on  my 
knees  and  thank  you  for  breaking  the  leader. 
You  see,  I'd  made  up  my  mind  to  keep  my  word. 
And,  well,  of  course,  it's  a  great  escape  for 
me." 

"Why  ?  Was  the  prospect  of  marrying  me  so 
awful?" 

"The  prospect  of  marrying  a  man  who  would 
rather  lose  a  five-pound  fish  than  marry  me — 
was  awful." 

Pritchard  stopped  rowing,  and  his  laughter 
went  abroad  over  the  quiet  lake  until  presently 
Gay's  forehead  smoothed  and,  after  a  prelude  of 
dimples,  she  joined  gayly  in. 

When  Pritchard  could  speak,  he  said: 

"You  don't  really  think  that,  do  you  ?" 

"I  don't  know  what  I  think,"  said  Gay.  "I'm 
just  horrid  and  cross  and  spoiled.  Don't  let's 
talk  about  it  any  more." 

"But  I  said,"  said  he,  "I  said  'As  a  bet,  no; 
but  as  a  gift' — oh,  with  what  rapture  and  de- 
light!" 

89 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Do  you  mean  that?"  She  looked  him  in  the 
face  with  level  eyes. 

Once  more  he  stopped  rowing. 

"I  love  you,"  he  said,  "with  my  whole  heart 
and  soul." 

"Don't,"  said  Gay,  "don't  spoil  a  day  that,  for  all 
its  ups  and  downs,  has  been  a  good  day,  a  day  that, 
on  the  whole,  I've  loved — and  let's  hurry,  please, 
because  I  stood  in  the  water  and  it  was  icy." 

After  that  Pritchard  rowed  with  heroic  force 
and  determination;  he  lacked,  however,  the 
knack  which  overlapping  oar  handles  demand, 
and  at  every  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  stroke  knocked 
a  piece  of  "bark"  from  his  knuckles. 

Smarting  with  pain,  he  smiled  gently  at  her 
from  time  to  time. 

"Will  you  guide  me  to-morrow?" 

"To-morrow,"  she  said,  "there  will  be  enough 
real  guides  to  go  around." 

"You  really  are,  aren't  you?"  he  said. 

"What?" 

"Angry  with  me." 

"Oh,  no — I  think — that  what  you  said — what 
you  said — was  a  foolish  thing  to  say.  If  I  came 
to  you  with  my  sisters  Lee  and  Phyllis,  you 
wouldn't  know  which  of  the  three  I  was,  and  yet 

— you  said — you  said " 

90 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"It  isn't  a  question  of  words — it's  a  question 
of  feeling.  Do  you  really  think  I  shouldn't  know 
you  from  your  sisters  ?" 

"I  am  sure  of  it,"  said  Gay. 

"But  if  you  weren't?" 

"Then  I  should  still  think  that  you  had  tried 
to  be  foolish  but  I  shouldn't  be  angry." 

"How,"  said  Pritchard,  his  eyes  twinkling, 
"shall  I  convince  the  girl  I  love — that  I  know 
her  by  sight?" 

Gay  laughed.  The  idea  seemed  rather  comical 
to  her. 

"To-night,"  she  said,  "when  you  have  dined, 
walk  down  to  the  dock  alone.  One  of  us  three 
will  come  to  you  and  say:  'Too  bad  we  didn't 
have  better  luck.'  And  you  won't  know  if  she's 
Lee  or  Phyllis  or  me." 


Pritchard  smoked  upon  the  dock  in  the  light  of 
an  arc-lamp.  A  vision,  smiling  and  rosy,  swept 
out  of  the  darkness,  and  said: 

"Too  bad  we  didn't  have  better  luck!" 

"I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Pritchard,  "you're 
not  Miss  Gay,  but  I  haven't  had  the  pleasure  of 
being  presented  to  Miss  Lee  or  Miss  Phyllis." 

The  vision  chuckled  and  beat  a  swift,  giggling 


The  Seven  Darlings 

retreat  to  a  dark  spot  among  the  pines,  where 
other  giggles  awaited  her. 

A  second  vision  came. 

"Too  bad  we  didn't  have  better  luck!" 

Pritchard  smiled  gravely  into  the  vision's  eyes, 
and  said  in  so  low  a  voice  that  only  she  could 
hear: 

"Bad  luck?  I  have  learned  to  love  you  with 
all  my  heart  and  soul." 

Silence.     An  answering  whisper. 

"How  did  you  know  me  ?" 

"How?  Because  my  heart  says  here  is  the 
only  girl  in  all  the  world — see  how  different,  how 
more  beautiful  and  gentle  she  is  than  all  other 
girls." 

"But  I'm  not  Gay— I'm  Phyllis." 

"If  you  are  Phyllis,"  he  whispered,  "then  you 
never  were  Gay." 

She  laughed  softly. 

"I  am  Gay." 

"Why  tell  me  ?    I  know.    Am  I  forgiven  ?" 

"There  is  nothing,"  she  said  swiftly,  "to  for- 
give," and  she  fled  swiftly. 

To  her  sisters  waiting  among  the  pines  she 
gave  explanation. 

"Of  course,  he  knew  me." 

"How?" 

92 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Why,  he  said  there  couldn't  be  any  doubt; 
he  said  I  was  so  very  much  better-looking  than 
any  sister  of  mine  could  possibly  be." 

Forthwith  Lee  pinioned  Gay's  aims  and  Phyllis 
pulled  her  ears  for  her. 

Mr.  Pritchard  paced  the  dock,  offering  rings  of 
Cuban  incense  to  the  stars. 


From  Play  House  came  the  sounds  which  men 
make  when  they  play  cards  and  do  not  care 
whether  they  win  or  lose. 

Maud  was  in  her  office,  adding  a  column  of 
figures  which  the  grocer  had  sent  in.  The  triplets, 
linked  arm  in  arm,  joined  her.  Arthur  came,  and 
Eve  and  Mary. 

They  agreed  that  they  were  very  tired  and 
ready  for  bed. 

"It's  going  to  be  a  success,  anyway,"  said  Mary. 
"That  seems  certain." 

"We  must  have  the  plumber  up,"  said  Eve; 
"the  laundry  boiler  has  sprung  a  leak.  Who's 
that  in  your  pocket,  Arthur?" 

"Uncas.  He  came  in  exhausted  after  a  long 
day  in  the  woods.  Something  unusual  happened 
to  him.  I  know,  because  he  tried  so  very  hard  to 
tell  me  all  about  it  just  before  he  went  to  sleep, 

93 


The  Seven  Darlings 

and  of  course  he  couldn't  quite  make  me  under- 
stand. I  think  he  was  trying  to  warn  me  of  some- 
thing— trying  to  tell  me  to  keep  my  eyes  peeled." 
The  family  laughed.  Arthur  was  always  so 
absurd  about  his  pets.  All  laughed  except  Gay. 
She,  in  a  dark  corner,  like  the  rose  in  the  poem, 
blushed  unseen. 


94 


XI 

WHEN  their  week  was  up,  Mr.  Langham's 
guests,  Messrs.  O'Malley,  Alston,  and 
Cox,  felt  obliged  to  go  where  income  called 
them.  Renier,  however,  who  had  only  been  at 
work  a  year,  decided  that  he  did  not  like  his 
job,  and  would  try  for  another  in  the  fall.  Lee 
delivered  herself  of  the  stern  opinion  that  a 
rolling  stone  gathers  no  moss,  and  Renier  an- 
swered that  his  late  uncle  had  been  a  fair-to-mid- 
dling moss  gatherer,  and  that  to  have  more  than 
one  such  in  a  given  family  was  a  sign  of  low  tastes. 
"I  have  a  little  money  of  my  own,"  he  said 
darkly,  "and,  what's  more,  I  have  a  little  hunch/' 
To  his  face  Lee  upbraided  him  for  his  lack  of 
ambition  and  his  lack  of  elegance,  but  behind  his 
back  she  smiled  secretly.  She  was  well  pleased 
with  herself.  It  had  only  taken  him  three  days 
to  get  so  that  he  knew  her  when  he  saw  her,  and 
for  a  young  man  of  average  intellect  and  eyesight 
that  was  almost  a  record. 

The  triplets  were    not   only   as   like   as   three 
lovely  vases  cast  in  the  same  mould  but  it  amused 

95 


The  Seven  Darlings 

them  to  dress  alike,  without  so  much  as  the 
differentiation  of  a  ribbon,  and  to  imitate  each 
other's  little  tricks  of  speech  and  gesture.  It 
was  even  possible  for  them  to  fool  their  own 
brother  at  times  when  he  happened  to  be  a  little 
absent-minded. 

Every  day  Renier  fished  for  many  hours,  and 
always  the  guide  who  handled  his  boat  and  showed 
him  where  to  throw  his  flies  was  Lee. 

"They're  only  children,"  said  Mary,  "and  I 
think  they're  getting  altogether  too  chummy." 

Arthur  did  not  answer,  and  for  the  very  good 
reason  that  Mary's  words  were  not  addressed  to 
him,  nor  were  they  addressed  to  Maud  or  Eve. 
Indeed,  at  the  moment,  these  three  were  sound 
asleep  in  their  beds.  It  was  to  that  plumper  and 
earlier  bird,  Mr.  Samuel  Langham,  that  Mary 
had  spoken.  The  end  of  a  kitchen  table,  set 
with  blue-and-white  dishes  and  cups  that  steamed, 
fragrantly  separated  them.  They  had  formed  a 
habit  of  breakfasting  together  in  the  kitchen, 
and  it  had  not  taken  Mary  long  to  discover  that 
Sam  Langham's  good  judgment  was  not  confined 
to  eatables  and  drinkables.  She  consulted  him 
about  all  sorts  of  things.  She  felt  as  if  she  had 
known  him  (and  trusted  him)  all  her  life. 

"Renier,"  he  said,  "is  one  of  the  few  really 
96 


The  Seven  Darlings 

eligible  young  men  I  know.  That  is  why  I  asked 
him  up  here.  I  don't  mean  that  my  intention 
was  match-making,  but  when  I  saw  your  picture 
in  the  advertisement,  I  said  to  myself:  'The  Inn 
is  no  place  for  attractive  scalawags.  Any  man 
that  goes  there  on  my  invitation  must  be  sound, 
morally  and  financially/  Young  Renier  is  as 
innocent  of  anything  evil  as  Miss  Lee  herself. 
If  they  take  a  fancy  to  each  other — of  course  it's 
none  of  my  business,  but,  my  dear  Miss  Darling 
— why  not  ?" 

"Coffee?" 

"Thanks." 

"An  egg?" 

"Please." 

Mary  was  very  tactful.  She  never  said :  "  Some 
more  coffee  ?"  She  never  said:  "Another  egg  ?" 

"Some  people,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  smiling 
happily,  "might  say  that  we  were  getting  too 
chummy." 

"Suppose,"  said  Mary,  "that  somebody  did 
say  just  that  ?" 

"I  should  reply,"  said  Mr.  Langham  thought- 
fully, "that  of  the  few  really  eligible  men  that  I 
know,  I  myself  am,  on  the  whole,  the  most  eli- 
gible." 

Mary  laughed. 

97 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Construe,"  she  said. 

"In  the  first  place,"  he  continued,  "and  nam- 
ing my  qualifications  in  the  order  of  their  im- 
portance, I  don't  ever  remember  to  have  spoken 
a  cross  word  to  anybody;  secondly,  unless  I  have 
paved  a  primrose  path  to  ultimate  indigestion 
and  gout,  there  is  nothing  in  my  past  life  to  war- 
rant mention.  To  be  more  explicit,  I  am  not 
in  a  position  to  be  troubled  by — er — 'old  agita- 
tions of  myrtle  and  roses';  third,  something  tells 
me  that  in  a  time  of  supreme  need  it  would  be 
possible  for  me  to  go  to  work;  and,  fourth,  I  have 
plenty  of  money — really  plenty  of  money." 

Mary  smiled  almost  tenderly. 

"I  can't  help  feeling,"  she  said,  "that  I,  too, 
am  a  safe  proposition.  I  am  twenty-nine.  My 
wild  oats  have  never  sprouted.  I  think  we  may 
conclude  that  they  were  never  sown.  The  Inn 
was  my  idea — mostly,  though  I  say  it  that 
shouldn't.  And  The  Inn  is  going  to  be  a  success. 
We  could  fill  every  room  we've  got  five  times — at 
our  own  prices." 

"I  pronounce  your  bill  of  health  sound,"  said 
Mr.  Langham.  "Let  us  continue  to  be  chummy." 

"Coffee?" 

"Thanks." 

Whatever  chance  there  may  have  been  for 
98 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Gay  and  Pritchard  to  get  "too  chummy" — and 
no  one  will  deny  that  they  had  made  an  excellent 
start — was  promptly  knocked  in  the  head  by 
Arthur.  It  so  happened  that,  in  a  desperately 
unguarded  moment,  when  Arthur  happened  to  be 
present,  Pritchard  mentioned  that  he  had  spent 
a  whole  winter  in  the  city  of  Peking.  The  name 
startled  Arthur  as  might  the  apparition  of  a 
ghost. 

"Which  winter?"  he  asked.  "I  mean,  what 
year?" 

Pritchard  said  what  year,  and  added,  "Why  do 
you  ask?" 

Arthur  had  not  meant  to  ask.  He  began  a 
long  blush,  seeing  which  Gay  turned  swift  heels 
and  escaped  upon  a  suddenly  ejaculated  pretext. 

"Why,"  said  Arthur  lamely,  "I  knew  some 
people  who  were  in  Peking  that  winter — that's 
all." 

"Then,"  said  Pritchard,  "we  have  mutual 
friends.  I  knew  every  foreigner  in  Peking. 
There  weren't  many." 

Although  Arthur  had  gotten  the  better  of  his 
blush,  he  felt  that  Pritchard  was  eying  him  rather 
narrowly. 

"They,"  said  Arthur,  "were  a  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Waring." 

99 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  hope,"  said  Pritchard,  "that  he  wasn't  a 
friend  of  yours." 

"He  was  not,"  said  Arthur,  "but  she  was.  I 
was  very  fond  of  her." 

"Nobody,"  said  Pritchard,  "could  help  being 
fond  of  her.  But  Waring  was  an  old  brute.  One 
hated  him.  He  wouldn't  let  her  call  her  soul  her 
own.  He  was  always  snubbing  her.  We  used  to 
call  her  the  'girl  with  the  dry  eyes.'  ' 

"Why?"  asked  Arthur. 

"It's  a  Chinese  idea,"  said  Pritchard.  "Every 
woman  is  supposed  to  have  just  so  many  tears 
to  shed.  When  these  are  all  gone,  why,  then,  no 
matter  what  sorrows  come  to  her,  she  has  no  way 
of  relieving  them." 

Arthur  could  not  conceal  his  agitation.  And 
Pritchard  looked  away.  He  wished  to  escape. 
He  thought  that  he  could  be  happier  with  Gay 
than  with  her  brother.  But  Arthur,  agitation  or 
no  agitation,  was  determined  to  find  out  all  that 
the  young  Englishman  could  tell  him  about  the 
Warings.  He  began  to  ask  innumerable  ques- 
tions: "W7hat  sort  of  a  house  did  they  live  in  ?" 
"How  do  Christians  amuse  themselves  in  the 
Chinese  capital?"  "Did  Mrs.  Waring  ride?" 
"What  were  some  of  her  friends  like?"  etc.,  etc. 
There  was  no  escaping  him.  He  fastened  himself 

ICO 


The  Seven  Darlings 

to  Pritchard  as  a  drowning  man  to  a  straw.  And 
his  appetite  for  Peking  news  became  insatiable. 
Pritchard  surrendered  gracefully.  He  went  with 
Arthur  on  canoe  trips  and  mountain  climbs;  at 
night  he  smoked  with  him  in  the  open  camp. 
And,  in  the  end,  Arthur  gave  him  his  whole  con- 
fidence; so  that,  much  as  Pritchard  wished  to 
climb  mountains  and  go  on  canoe  trips  with  Gay, 
he  was  touched,  interested,  and  gratified,  and 
then  all  at  once  he  found  himself  liking  Arthur 
as  much  as  any  man  he  had  ever  known. 

"There  is  something  wonderfully  fine  about 
your  brother,"  he  said  to  Gay.  "At  first  I  thought 
he  was  a  queer  stick,  with  his  pets  and  his  secret 
haunts  in  the  woods,  and  his  unutterable  con- 
tempt for  anything  mean  or  worldly.  We  ought 
to  dress  him  up  in  proof  armor  and  send  him  forth 
upon  the  quest  of  some  grail  or  other." 

"Grails,"  said   Gay,  "and  auks   are   extinct/* 

"Grails  extinct!"  exclaimed  Pritchard.  He 
was  horrified. 

"Why,  my  dear  Miss  Gay,  if  ever  the  world 
offered  opportunities  to  belted  knights  without 
fear  and  without  reproach,  it's  now." 

"I  suppose,"  said  she,  "that  Arthur  has  told 
you  all  about  his — his  mix-up." 

Pritchard  nodded  gravely. 
101 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Is  that  the  quest  he  ought  to  ride  on  ?" 

"No — it  won't  do  for  Arthur.  He  might  be 
accused  of  self-interest.  That  should  be  a  matter 
to  be  redressed  by  a  brother  knight." 

"Or  a  divorce  court." 

"Miss  Gay!" 

"I  don't  think  it's  nice  for  one's  brother  to  be 
in  love  with  a  married  woman." 

"It  isn't,"  said  Pritchard  gravely,  "for  him. 
It's  hell." 

"We"  said  Gay,  "never  knew  her." 

"She's  not  much  older  than  you,"  said  Pritch- 
ard. "If  I'd  never  seen  you,  I'd  say  that  she 
was  the  prettiest  girl  I'd  ever  seen.  But  she's 
gentler  and  meeker  than  even  you'd  be  in  her 
boots.  She  isn't  self-reliant  and  able." 

"You  talk  as  if  you'd  been  in  love  with  her 
yourself." 

"I  ?  I  thought  I  was  talking  as  if  I  was  in 
love  with  you." 

"Looks  like  it,  don't  it?"  said  she.  "Spend- 
ing all  your  time  with  a  girl's  brother." 

"Not  doing  what  you  most  want  to  do,"  said 
Pritchard,  "is  sometimes  thought  knightly." 

"Do  you  know,"  she  said  critically,  "some- 
times I  think  you  really  like  me  a  lot.  And  some- 
times I  think  that  I  really  like  you.  The  funny 

102 


The  Seven  Darlings 

thing  is  that  it  never  seems  to  happen  to  both  of 
us  at  the  same  time.  There's  Arthur  looking 
for  you.  Do  me  a  favor — shake  him  and  come 
for  a  tramp  with  me/' 

"I  can't,"  said  Pritchard  simply.  "I've  prom- 
ised. But  to-morrow " 

"Certainly  not,"  said  she. 


103 


XII 

WARM  weather  and  the  real  opening  of  the 
season  arrived  at  the  same  time.  The 
Camp  hummed  with  the  activities  and  the  voices 
of  people.  And  it  became  possible  for  the  Dar- 
lings to  withdraw  a  little  into  their  shells  and  lead 
more  of  a  family  life.  As  Maud  said : 

"When  there  were  more  proprietors  than 
guests,  we  simply  had  to  sail  in  and  give  the 
guests  a  good  time.  But  now  that  the  business 
is  in  full  blast,  we  mustn't  be  amateurs  any 
more." 

Langham,  Renier,  and  the  future  Earl  of 
Merrivale  remained,  of  course,  upon  their  well- 
established  footing  of  companionship,  but  the 
Darlings  began  to  play  their  parts  of  innkeepers 
with  the  utmost  seriousness  and  to  fight  shy  of 
any  social  advances  from  the  ranks  of  their  guests. 

Indeed,  for  the  real  heads  of  the  family,  Mary, 
Maud,  and  Eve,  there  was  serious  work  to  be 
done.  For,  to  keep  thirty  or  forty  exigent  and 
extravagant  people  well  fed,  well  laundered,  well 
served,  and  well  amused  is  no  frisky  skirmish 

104 


The  Seven  Darlings 

but  a  morning-to-night  battle,  a  constant  looking 
ahead,  a  steady  drain  upon  the  patience  and  in- 
vention. 

In  Sam  Langham  Mary  found  an  invaluable 
ally.  He  knew  how  to  live,  and  could  guess  to  a 
nicety  the  "inner  man"  of  another.  Nor  did  he 
stop  at  advice.  Being  a  celebrated  bon  viveur  he 
went  subtly  among  the  guests  and  praised  the 
machinery  of  whose  completed  product  they  were 
the  consumers  and  the  beneficiaries.  He  knew 
of  no  place,  he  confided,  up  and  down  the  whole 
world,  where,  for  a  sum  of  money,  you  got  exactly 
what  you  wanted  without  asking  for  it. 

"Take  me  for  an  example,"  he  would  say.  "I 
have  never  before  been  able  to  get  along  without 
my  valet.  Here  he  would  be  a  superfluity.  I  am 
'done,'  you  may  say,  better  than  I  have  ever 
been  able  to  do  myself.  And  I  know  what  I'm 
talking  about.  What !  You  think  the  prices  are 
really  rather  high.  Think  what  you  are  getting, 
man — think!" 

Among  the  new  guests  was  a  young  man  from 
Boston  by  the  name  of  Herring.  He  had  written 
that  he  was  convalescing  from  typhoid  fever  and 
that  his  doctor  had  prescribed  Adirondack  air. 

Renier  knew  Herring  slightly  and  vouched  for 
him. 

105 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"They're  good  people,"  he  said,  "his  branch 
of  the  Herring  family — the  'red  Herrings'  they 
are  called  locally — if  we  may  speak  of  Boston  as  a 
'locality' — he's  the  reddest  of  them  and  the  most 
showy.  If  there's  anything  he  hasn't  tried,  he 
has  to  try  it.  He  isn't  good  at  things.  But  he 
does  them.  He's  the  fellow  that  went  to  the 
Barren  Lands  with  a  niblick.  What,  you  never 
heard  of  that  stunt  ?  He  was  playing  in  foursome 
at  Myopia.  He  got  bunkered.  He  hit  the  sand  a 
prodigious  blow  and  the  ball  never  moved.  His 
partner  said:  'Never  mind,  Syd,  you  hit  hard 
enough  to  kill  a  musk-ox.' 

!  'Did  I  ?'  said  Herring,  much  interested,  'but 
I  never  heard  of  killing  a  musk-ox  with  a  niblick. 
Has  it  ever  been  done  ?  Are  there  any  authorities 
one  might  consult  ? ' 

"His  partner  assured  him  that  'it*  had  never 
been  done.  Herring  said  that  was  enough  for 
him.  The  charm  of  Herring  is  that  he  never 
smiles;  he's  deadly  serious — or  pretends  to  be. 
When  they  had  holed  out  at  the  eighteenth, 
Herring  took  his  niblick  and  said:  'Well,  so  long. 
I'm  off  to  the  Barren  Lands.' 

"They  bet  him  there  and  then  that  he  would 
neither  go  to  the  Barren  Lands  nor  kill  a  musk- 
ox  when  he  got  there.  He  took  their  bets,  which 

106 


The  Seven  Darlings 

were  large.  And  he  went  to  the  Barren  Lands, 
armed  only  with  his  niblick  and  a  camera.  But 
he  didn't  kill  a  musk-ox.  He  said  they  came  right 
up  to  be  photographed,  and  he  hadn't  the  heart 
to  strike.  He  brought  back  plenty  enough  pic- 
tures to  prove  where  he'd  been,  but  no  musk-ox. 
He  aimed  at  one  tentatively  but  at  the  last  mo- 
ment held  his  hand.  'He  remembered  suddenly,' 
he  said,  'that  he  had  never  killed  anything,  and 
didn't  propose  to  begin/  So  he  came  home  and 
paid  one  bet  and  pocketed  the  other.  He  can't 
shoot;  he  can't  fish;  he  can't  row.  He's  a  per- 
fect dub,  but  he's  got  the  soul  of  a  Columbus." 

"Something  tells  me,"  said  Pritchard,  "that  I 
shall  like  him." 

Herring,  having  arrived  and  registered  and 
been  shown  his  rooms,  was  not  thereafter  seen  to 
speak  to  anybody  for  two  whole  days.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  though,  he  held  some  conversa- 
tion with  Renier,  whom  he  had  met  before. 

"It's  just  Boston,"  Renier  explained.  "They're 
the  best  people  in  the  world — when — well,  not 
when  you  get  to  know  them  but  when  they  get 
to  know  you.  Give  him  time  and  he  will  blos- 
som." 

"He  looks  like  a  blossom  already,"  said  Lee. 
"He  looks  at  a  little  distance  like  a  gigantic 

107 


The  Seven  Darlings 

plant  of  scarlet  salvia,  or  a  small  maple-tree  in 
October." 

Upon  the  third  day  Mr.  Herring  came  out 
of  his  shell,  as  had  been  prophesied.  He  went 
about  asking  guests  and  guides,  with  almost 
plaintive  seriousness,  questions  which  they  were 
unable  to  answer.  He  began  to  make  friends  with 
Pritchard  and  Langham.  He  solemnly  presented 
Arthur  with  a  baseball  that  had  figured  in  a  Yale- 
Harvard  game.  Then  he  got  himself  introduced 
to  Lee. 

"You  guide,  don't  you?"  he  said. 

"I  have  guided,"  she  said,  "but  I  don't.  It 
was  only  in  the  beginning  of  things  when  there 
weren't  enough  real  guides  to  go  around.  But, 
surely  you  don't  need  a  guide.  You've  been  to 
the  Barren  Lands  and  all  sorts  of  wild  places. 
You  ought  to  be  a  first-class  woodsman." 

"I  thought  I'd  like  to  go  fishing  to-morrow," 
he  said.  "It's  very  disappointing.  I've  looked 
forward  all  my  life  to  being  guided  by  a  young 
girl,  and  when  I  saw  you,  I  said,  if  this  isn't  she, 
this  is  her  living  image." 

"You  shall  have  Bullard,"  said  Lee.  "He 
knows  all  the  best  places." 

Herring  complained  to  Arthur.  "Your  sisters," 
he  said,  "are  said  to  be  the  best  guides  in  the 

1 08 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Adirondacks,  but  they  won't  take  me  out.  How 
is  a  fellow  to  convalesce  from  typhoid  if  people 
aren't  unfailingly  kind  to  him?" 

Arthur  laughed,  and  said  that  he  didn't  know. 

"Let  me  guide  you,"  he  offered. 

"No,"  said  Herring,  "it  isn't  that  I  want  to  be 
guided.  It's  that  I  want  the  experience  of  being 
guided  by  a  girl.  I  want  to  lean  back  and  be 
rowed." 

Herring  walked  in  the  woods  and  came  upon 
Phyllis's  garden,  with  Phyllis  in  the  midst  of  it. 

"Halloo  again!"  he  said. 

Now  it  so  happened  that  he  had  never  seen 
Phyllis  before. 

She  straightened  from  a  frame  of  baby  lettuce 
and  smiled.  She  loved  bright  colors,  and  his 
flaming  hair  was  becoming  to  her  garden. 

"Halloo  again!"  she  said. 

"Have  you  changed  your  mind  ?"  he  asked. 

She  sparred  for  time  and  enlightenment  and 
said: 

"It's  against  all  the  rules." 

"We  could,"  said  he,  "start  so  early  that  no- 
body would  know.  I  have  often  gotten  up  at 
five." 

"So  have  I,"  said  Phyllis  wistfully. 

"We  could  be  back  before  breakfast." 
109 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Phyllis  appeared  to  think  the  matter  over. 

"Of  course,"  he  said,  "you  said  you  wouldn't. 
But  if  girls  didn't  change  their  minds,  they 
wouldn't  be  girls." 

"That,"  said  Phyllis,  "is  perfectly  true." 

To  herself  she  said : 

"He's  asked  Lee  or  Gay  to  guide  him,  and 
thinks  he's  asked  me." 

Now,  Phyllis  was  not  good  with  oars  or  fishing- 
tackle,  but  she  liked  Herring's  hair  and  the  fact 
that  he  never  smiled.  Furthermore,  she  believed 
that,  if  the  worst  came  to  the  worst,  she  could 
find  some  of  the  places  where  people  sometimes 
took  trout. 

"I  have  never,"  said  Herring,  "been  guided 
by  a  young  girl." 

"What,  never!"  exclaimed  Phyllis. 

"Never,"  he  said.  "And  I  am  sure  that  it 
would  work  wonders  for  me." 

"Such  as?" 

"It  might  lead  me  to  take  an  interest  in  gar- 
dening. I  have  always  hoped  that  I  should  some 
day." 

"People,"  thought  Phyllis,  "interested  in  gar- 
dening are  rare — especially  beautiful  young  gen- 
tlemen with  flaming  hair.  Here  is  my  chance  to 
slaughter  two  birds  with  one  stone." 

no 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"You'll  swear  not  to  tell?"  she  exhorted. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "but  not  here.  Soon.  When  I 
am  alone."  He  did  not  smile. 

"Then,"  she  said,  "be  at  the  float  at  five- 
thirty  sharp." 

That  night  she  sought  out  Lee  and  Gay. 

"Such  a  joke,"  she  said.  "I've  promised  to 
guide  Mr.  Herring — to-morrow  at  five-thirty,  but 
he  thinks  that  it's  one  of  you  two  who  has 
promised.  Now,  as  I  don't  row  or  fish,  one  of 
you  will  have  to  take  my  place  for  the  credit  of 
the  family." 

But  her  sisters  were  laughing  in  their  sleeves. 

"My  dear  girl,"  said  Gay,  "why  the  dickens 
didn't  you  tell  us  sooner  ?  We  also  have  made 
positive  engagements  at  five-thirty  to-morrow 
morning." 

"What  engagements?"  exclaimed  Phyllis. 

Gay  leaned  close  and  whispered  confidentially. 

"We've  made  positive  engagements,"  she  said, 
"to  sleep  till  breakfast  time." 


in 


XIII 

IN  an  athletic  generation  Phyllis  was  an 
anachronism.  She  was  the  sort  of  girl  one's 
great-grandmother  was,  only  better-looking — one's 
|rest-grandmother,  if  there  is  any  truth  in  oil 
and  canvas,  having  been  neatly  and  roundly 
turned  out  of  a  peg  of  wood.  Phyllis  played  no 
game  well,  unless  gardening  is  a  game.  She  liked 
to  embroider  and  to  write  long  letters  in  a  wonder- 
fully neat  hand.  She  disliked  intensely  the  roar- 
ing of  firearms  and  the  diabolic  flopping  of  fresh- 
caught  fish.  She  was  one  of  those  people  who 
never  look  at  a  sunset  or  a  moonrise  or  a  flower 
without  actually  seeing  them,  and  yet,  withal,  her 
sisters  Lee  and  Gay  looked  upon  her  with  a  cer- 
tain awe  and  respect.  She  was  so  strong  in  the 
wrists  and  fingers  that  she  could  hold  them  when 
they  were  rambunctious.  And  she  was  only 
afraid  of  things  that  aren't  in  the  least  dangerous. 
"No,"  they  said,  "she  can't  fish  and  shoot  and 
row  and  play  tennis  and  dive  and  swim  under 
water,  but  she's  the  best  dancer  in  the  family — 
probably  in  the  world — and  the  best  sport." 

112 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Phyllis  was,  in  truth,  a  good  sport,  or  else  sh  • 
was  more  attracted  by  Mr.  Herring's  Salvia- 
splendens  hair  than  she  would  have  cared  to  ad- 
mit. Whatever  the  cause,  she  met  him  at  the 
float  the  next  morning  at  five-thirty,  prepared  to 
guide  him  or  perish  in  the  attempt.  She  wore  a 
short  blue  skirt  and  a  long  white  sweater  of 
Shetland  wool.  It  weighed  about  an  ounce.  She 
wore  white  tennis  shoes  and  an  immense  pair  of 
well-oiled  gardening  gloves.  At  least  she  would 
put  off  blistering  her  hands  as  long  as  possible. 

Phyllis,  to  be  exact,  was  five  minutes  early 
for  her  appointment.  This  gave  her  time  to  get 
a  boat  into  the  water  without  displaying  awk- 
wardness to  any  one  but  herself — also,  to  slip  the 
oars  over  the  thole-pins  and  to  accustom  herself 
to  the  idea  of  handling  them.  She  had  taken 
coaching  the  night  before  from  Lee  and  Gay, 
sitting  on  a  bearskin  rug  in  front  of  the  fire,  and 
swaying  rhythmically  forward  and  back. 

As  Herring  was  no  fisherman,  her  sisters  ad- 
vised her  to  row  very  slowly.  "Tell  him,"  they 
said,  "that  a  boat  rushing  through  water  alarms 
fish  more  than  anything  in  the  world." 

She  told  him  when  he  was  seated  in  the  stern 
of  the  boat  facing  her. 

"You  mustn't  mind  going  very  slow,"  she  said. 
"3 


The  Seven  Darlings 


«c 


The  fish  in  this  part  of  the  Adirondacks  are 
noted  for  their  sensitiveness  in  general  and  their 
acute  sense  of  hearing  in  particular.  Why,  if  I 
were  to  row  as  fast  as  I  can" — there  must  have 
been  a  twinkle  in  her  eyes — "trout  miles  away 
would  be  frightened  out  of  their  skins,"  and  she 
added  mentally,  "  and  I  should  upset  this  horribly 
wabbly  boat  into  the  bargain." 

They  proceeded  at  a  snail's  pace,  Phyllis  dab- 
bing the  water  gingerly  with  her  oars,  with  some- 
thing of  that  caution  and  repulsion  with  which 
one  turns  over  a  dead  snake  with  a  stick — to  see 
if  it  is  dead. 

The  grips  of  guide-boat  oars  overlap.  And 
your  hands  follow  rather  than  accompany  each 
other  from  catch  to  finish,  and  from  finish  to 
catch.  If  you  are  careless,  or  not  to  the  stroke 
born  or  trained,  you  occasionally  knock  little 
chunks  of  skin  and  flesh  from  your  knuckles. 

Herring  watched  Phyllis's  gentle  and  restrained 
efforts  with  inscrutable  eyes. 

"I  never  could  understand,"  he  said,  "how 
you  fellows  manage  to  row  at  all  with  that  sort 
of  an  outfit.  At  Harvard  they  only  give  you  one 
oar  and  let  you  take  both  hands  to  it,  and  then 
you  can't  row.  At  least,  I  couldn't.  They  put 
me  right  out  of  the  boat.  They  said  I  caught 

114 


The  Seven  Darlings 

crabs.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  didn't.  All  I  did 
was  to  sit  there,  and  every  now  and  then  the 
handle  of  my  oar  banged  me  across  the  solar 
plexus." 

"We're  not  going  far,  you  know,"  said  Phyllis 
(and  she  mastered  the  desire  to  laugh).  "Hadn't 
you — ah — um — better  put  your  rod  together?" 

"Oh,  I  can  do  that!"  said  Herring.  "You 
begin  with  the  big  piece  and  you  stick  the  next- 
sized  piece  into  that,  and  so  on.  And  I  know 
how  to  put  the  reel  on,  because  the  man  in  the 
store  showed  me,  and  I  know  how  to  run  the  line 
through  the  rings." 

"Well,"  said  Phyllis,  "that's  more  than  half 
the  battle." 

"And,"  Herring  continued,  "he  showed  me 
how  to  tie  on  the  what-you-may-call-it  and  the 
flies." 

"Good!"  said  Phyllis. 

"And,  of  course,"  he  concluded,  "I've  for- 
gotten." 

Now,  Phyllis  had  been  shown  how  to  tie  flies 
to  a  leader  only  the  night  before,  and  she,  also, 
had  forgotten. 

"There  are,"  she  said,  "a  great  many  fetiches 
among  anglers.  Among  them  are  knots.  Now, 
in  my  experience,  almost  any  knot  that  will  stand 

"5 


The  Seven  Darlings 

will  do.  The  important  thing  is  to  choose  the 
right  flies." 

As  to  this,  she  had  also  received  instruction, 
but  with  better  results,  since  it  was  an  entirely 
feminine  affair  of  colored  silks  and  feathers. 

"I  will  tell  you  which  flies  to  use,"  she  said. 

"And,"  said  he,  "you  will  also  have  to  show  me 
how  to  cast." 

"What!"  she  exclaimed,  and  stopped  rowing. 
"You  don't  know  how  to  cast  ?" 

"No,"  he  said,  "I  don't.  I'm  a  dub.  Didn't 
you  know  that  ?" 

"But,"  she  protested,  "I  can't  teach  you  in  a 
morning" — and  she  added  mentally — "or  in  a 
whole  lifetime,  for  that  matter." 

It  was  not  more  than  a  mile  across  the  mouth 
of  a  deep  bay  to  the  brook  in  which  they  had 
elected  to  fish.  With  no  wind  to  object,  the  most 
dabbily  propelled  guide  boat  travels  with  con- 
siderable speed,  and  before  Herring  had  managed 
to  tie  the  flies  which  Phyllis  had  selected  to  his 
leader  (with  any  kind  of  a  knot)  they  were  among 
the  snaggy  shallows  of  the  brook's  mouth. 

The  brook  was  known  locally  as  Swamp  Brook, 
its  shores  for  a  mile  or  more  being  boggy  and 
treacherous.  Fishermen  who  liked  to  land  oc- 
casionally and  cast  from  terra  firma  avoided  it. 

116 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Phyllis  had  selected  it  solely  because  it  was  the 
nearest  brook  to  the  camp  which  contained  trout. 
If  she  had  remembered  how  full  it  was  of  snags, 
and  how  easily  guide  boats  are  turned  turtle,  she 
would  have  selected  some  other  brook,  even,  if 
necessary,  at  the  "Back  of  beyond."  It  had 
been  easy  enough  to  propel  the  boat  across  the 
open  waters  of  the  lake,  but  to  guide  it  clear  of 
snags  and  around  right-angle  bends,  especially 
when  the  genius  of  rowing  demands  that  eyes  look 
astern  rather  than  ahead,  was  beyond  her  powers. 
The  boat  ran  into  snags,  poked  its  nose  into  boggy 
banks,  turned  half  over,  righted,  rushed  on,  and 
stopped  again  with  rude  bumps. 

Herring,  that  fatalistic  young  Bostonian,  began 
to  take  an  interest  in  his  fate.  His  flies  trailed  in 
the  water  behind  him.  His  eyes  never  left  Phyl- 
lis's  face.  His  handsome  mouth  was  as  near  to 
smiling  as  it  ever  got. 

"Do  you,"  he  said  presently,  "swim  as  well 
as  you  row  ? " 

She   stopped   rowing;    she  laughed   right  out. 

"Just  about,"  she  said. 

"Good,"  he  said  seriously,  "because  I'm  a  dub 
at  it,  and  in  case  of  an  upset,  I  look  to  you." 

"The  truth,"  said  Phyllis,  "is  that  there's  no 
place  to  swim  to.  It's  all  swamp  in  here." 

117 


The  Seven  Darlings 


tC' 


'True,"  said  Herring;  "we  would  have  to 
cling  to  the  boat  and  call  upon  Heaven  to  aid  us." 

One  of  Herring's  flies,  trailing  in  the  water, 
proved,  at  this  moment,  overwhelmingly  attrac- 
tive to  a  young  and  unsophisticated  trout. 

Herring  shouted  with  the  triumph  of  a  school- 
boy, "I've  got  one,"  and  sprang  to  his  feet. 

"Please  sit  down!"  said  Phyllis.  "We  almost 
went  that  time." 

"So  we  did,"  said  Herring. 

He  sat  down,  and  they  almost  "went"  again. 

"Now,"  said  Phyllis,  "play  him." 

"Play  him?"  said  Herring.  "Watch  me." 
And  he  began  to  pull  strongly  upon  the  fish. 

The  fish  was  young  and  weak.  Herring's 
tackle  was  new  and  strong.  The  fish  dangled  in 
mid-air  over  the  middle  of  the  boat. 

"Sorry,"  said  Herring,  "I  can't  reach  him. 
Take  him  off,  please." 

It  has  been  said  that  Phyllis  was  a  good  sport. 
If  there  was  one  thing  she  hated  and  feared 
more  than  another,  it  was  a  live  fish.  She  reached 
forward;  her  gloved  hand  almost  closed  upon  it; 
it  gave  a  convulsive  flop;  Phyllis  squeaked  like  a 
mouse,  threw  her  weight  to  one  side,  and  the  boat 
quietly  upset. 

The  sportsmen  came  to  the  surface  streaming. 
118 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  can  touch  bottom,"  said  Herring  politely; 

€(  S  " 

can  you  r 

"Yes,"  she  said,  "but  my  feet  are  sinking  into 
it — "  She  tore  them  loose  and  swam.  Herring 
did  likewise.  And  they  clung  to  the  boat. 

"I  hope  you'll  forgive  me,"  said  Phyllis.  "I 
never  rowed  a  boat  before  and  I  never  could  stand 
live  fish." 

"It  was  my  fault,"  said  Herring.  "Something 
told  me  to  lean  the  opposite  from  the  way  you 
leaned.  But  it  told  me  too  late.  The  truth  is  I 
don't  know  how  to  behave  in  a  boat.  Well,  you 
are  still  guide.  It's  up  to  you." 

"What  is  up  to  me?" 

"A  plan  of  some  sort,"  said  he,  "to  get  us  out 
of  this." 

"Oh,  no,"  she  said,  "it's  up  to  you." 

"My  plan,"  he  said,  "would  be  to  get  back 
into  the  boat  and  row  home.  It  seems  feasible, 
and  even  easy.  But  appearances  are  deceptive. 
I  think  I'd  rather  walk.  What  has  happened  here 
might  happen  out  on  the  middle  of  the  lake." 

"What  you  don't  realize,"  said  Phyllis,  "is 
that  we're  in  the  midst  of  an  impassable  swamp." 

"Impassable  ?" 

"Well,  no  one's  ever  crossed  it  except  in  winter." 

"What— no  one!" 

119 


The  Seven  Darlings 

He  was  immensely  interested. 

"Do  you  know,"  he  went  on  confidentially, 
"the  only  things  that  I'm  good  at  are  things  for 
which  there  are  no  precedents — things  that  no- 
body has  ever  done  before.  That's  why  I'm  so 
fond  of  doing  unusual  things.  Now,  you  say  that 
this  swamp  has  never  been  crossed  ?  Enough  said. 
You  and  I  will  cross  it.  We  will  do  it.  Are 
you  game  ?" 

"It  seems,"  said  Phyllis,  "merely  a  question 
of  when  and  where  we  drown.  So  I'm  game. 
Your  teeth  are  chattering." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Herring.  "But  no  harm 
will  come  to  them.  They  are  very  strong." 

"I  hope,"  said  Phyllis,  "that  when  I  come  out 
of  the  water  you  won't  look  at  me.  I  shall  be  a 
sight." 

"A  comrade  in  trouble,"  said  Herring,  "is 
never  a  sight." 

"I  am  so  ashamed,"  said  Phyllis. 

"What  of?" 

"Of  being  such  a  fool." 

"You're  a  good  sport,"  said  Herring.  "That's 
what  you  are." 

By  dint  of  violent  kicking  and  paddling  with 
their  free  hands  they  managed  to  propel  the 
guide  boat  from  the  centre  of  the  brook  to  a 

1 20 


The  Seven  Darlings 

firm-looking  clump  of  reeds  and  alder  roots  which 
formed  a  tiny  peninsula  from  that  shore  which 
was  toward  The  Camp.  Covered  with  slime  and 
mud  they  dragged  themselves  out  of  the  water 
and  stood  balancing  upon  the  alder  roots  to  re- 
cover their  breath. 

"We  must  each  take  an  oar,"  said  Herring. 
"We  can  make  little  bridges  with  them.  And 
we  must  keep  working  hard  so  as  to  get  warm. 
We  shall  live  to  write  a  brochure  about  this: 
'From  Clump  to  Clump,  or  Mudfoots  in  the 
Adirondacks.'  ' 

Between  that  clump  on  which  they  had  found 
a  footing  and  the  next  was  ten  feet  of  water. 

Herring  crossed  seven  feet  of  it  with  one  heavy 
jump,  fell  on  his  face,  caught  two  handfuls  of 
viburnum  stems,  and  once  more  dragged  himself 
out  of  water. 

"Now  then,"  he  called,  "float  the  oars  over  to 
me."  And  when  Phyllis  had  done  this:  "Now 
you  come.  The  main  thing  in  crossing  swamps  is 
to  keep  flat  instead  of  up  and  down.  Jump  for 
it — fall  forward — and  I'll  get  your  hands!" 

Once  more  they  stood  side  by  side  precariously 
balancing. 

"The  moment,"  said  Herring,  "that  you  begin 
to  feel  bored,  tell  me." 

121 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Why?" 

"So  that  I  can  encourage  you.  I  will  tell  you 
that  you  are  doing  something  that  has  never 
been  done  before.  And  that  will  make  you  feel 
fine  and  dandy.  What  we  are  doing  is  just  as 
hard  as  finding  the  North  Pole,  only  there  isn't 
going  to  be  so  much  of  it.  Now  then,  in  negotiat- 
ing this  next  sheet  of  water " 

And  so  they  proceeded  until  the  sun  was  high 
in  the  heavens  and  until  it  was  low. 


122 


XIV 

TO  attempt  the  dangerous  passage  of  a 
swamp  when  they  might  have  returned  to 
camp  in  the  guide  boat  was  undoubtedly  a  most 
imbecile  decision.  And  if  Phyllis  had  not  been 
thoroughly  flustered  by  the  upset,  which  was  all 
her  fault,  she  never  would  have  consented  to  it. 
As  for  Herring's  voice  in  the  matter,  it  was  that 
which  the  young  man  always  gave  when  there  was 
a  question  of  adventure.  He  didn't  get  around 
mountains  by  the  valley  road.  He  climbed  over 
them.  He  had  not  in  his  whole  being  a  suspicion 
of  what  is  dangerous.  He  had  never  been  afraid 
of  anything.  He  probably  never  would  be.  He 
would  have  enjoyed  leading  half  a  dozen  forlorn 
hopes  every  morning  before  breakfast. 

"We  were  idiots,"  said  Phyllis,  "to  leave  the 
boat." 

"We  can't  go  back  to  it  now,"  said  Herring. 
"We  don't  know  the  way." 

"Your  voice  sounds  as  if  you  were  glad  of  it." 

"I  am.  I  was  dreadfully  afraid  you'd  decide 
123 


The  Seven  Darlings 

against  crossing  this  swamp.     I'd  set  my  heart 
on  it." 

"It  isn't  I,"  said  Phyllis,  "that's  against  our 
crossing  this  swamp.  It's  the  swamp." 

"The  main  thing,"  said  Herring,  with  satis- 
faction (physically  he  was  almost  exhausted), 
"is  that  here  we  are  safe  and  sound.  We  don't 
know  where  'here'  is,  but  it's  with  us,  it  won't 
run  away.  When  we've  rested  we  shall  go  on, 
taking  'here'  with  us.  Wherever  we  go  is  'here.' 
Think  of  that!" 

"I  wish  I  could  think  of  something  else,"  said 
Phyllis,  "but  I  can't.  I'm  almost  dead." 

"You  are  doing  something  that  no  girl  has 
ever  done  before,  not  even  your  sisters,  those 
princesses  of  fortune.  Years  from  now,  when 
you  begin,  'Once  when  I  happened  to  be  crossing 
the  Swamp  with  a  young  fellow  named  Her- 
ring— '  they  will  have  to  sit  silent  and  listen." 

"If  you  weren't  so  cheerful,"  said  Phyllis,  "I 
should  have  begun  to  cry  an  hour  ago.  Do  you 
really  think  this  is  fun  ? " 

"Do  I  think  it's  fun  ?  To  be  in  a  scrape — not 
to  know  when  or  how  we  are  going  to  get  out  of 
it  ?  You  bet  I  think  it's  fun." 

"People  have  died,"  said  Phyllis,  "having  just 
this  sort  of  fun.  Suppose  we  can't  get  out  ?" 

124 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"You  mean  to-day  ?  Perhaps  we  can't.  Per- 
haps not  to-morrow.  Perhaps  we  shall  have  to 
learn  how  to  live  in  a  swamp.  A  month  of  the 
life  we've  led  for  the  last  few  hours  might  turn 
us  into  amphibians.  That  would  be  intensely 
novel  and  interesting.  But,  of  course,  when  winter 
comes  and  the  place  freezes  over  we  can  march 
right  out  and  take  up  our  orthodox  lives  where 
we  left  off.  Listen!" 

"What?" 

"I  think  I  hear  webs  growing  between  my 
ringers  and  toes." 

Phyllis  laughed  so  that  the  partially  dried 
mud  on  her  face  cracked. 

"What,"  she  said,  "are  we  going  to  eat  this 
side  of  winter  ?  What  are  we  going  to  eat  now  ?" 

His  face  expressed  immense  concern. 

"What?    You  are  hungry  ?    Allow  me!" 

He  produced  from  his  inside  pocket  a  very 
large  cake  of  sweet  chocolate,  wrapped  in  several 
thicknesses  of  oiled  silk. 

"My  one  contribution,"  he  said,  "to  the 
science  of  woodcraft." 

Phyllis  ate  and  was  refreshed.  Afterward  she 
washed  all  the  mud  from  her  face.  Herring 
watched  the  progress  of  the  ablution  with  much 
interest. 

125 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Wonderful!"  he  said  presently. 

"What  is  wonderful?"  she  asked,  not  without 
anticipation  of  a  compliment. 

"Wonderful  to  find  that  something  which  is 
generally  accepted  as  true — is  true.  To  see  it 
proved  before  your  eyes." 

"What  do  you  mean  ?" 

"I  mean,"  he  said,  "that  I  never  before  actually 
saw  a  girl  wash  her  face.  I've  seen  'em  when 
they  said  they  were  going  to.  I've  seen  'em  when 
they  said  they  just  had.  But  now  I  know." 

"If  you  weren't  quite  mad,"  said  Phyllis, 
"you'd  be  very  exasperating.  Here  am  I,  fright- 
ened half  to  death,  cold  and  miserable,  and 
dreadfully  worried  to  think  how  worried  my 
family  must  be,  and  there  are  you,  almost  too 
tired  to  stand,  actually  delighted  with  yourself, 
because  you're  in  trouble  and  because  for  the  first 
time  in  your  life  you've  seen  a  girl  wash  her  face. 
Can't  you  be  serious  about  anything?" 

"Not  about  a  half-drowned  girl  taking  the 
trouble  to  wash  her  face,"  he  said. 

"You,"  said  she,  "would  look  much  better  if 
you  washed  yours." 

"But,"  he  said,  "we'll  be  covered  with  mud 
again  before  we've  gone  fifty  yards." 

"Because  you  are  going  into  a  coal  mine  to- 
126 


The  Seven  Darlings 

morrow,"  said  Phyllis,  "is  no  reason  why  you 
shouldn't  be  clean  to-day." 

"True,"  said  Herring,  and  he  washed  his  face. 


At  breakfast  that  morning  Pritchard  received 
the  following  cablegram: 

Come  home  and  shake  hands.     I'm  off.      M. 

Greatly  moved,  he  carried  it  to  Gay,  and  with- 
out comment  put  it  in  her  hand. 

"Who  is  M?"  she  asked. 

"My  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Merrivale." 

"What  does  I'm  off  mean  ?" 

"It  means,"  said  Pritchard,  "that  they've  given 
him  up,  and  he  wants  to  make  friends.  He  never 
liked  my  father  or  me." 

"It  means,"  said  Gay  generously,  "that  you 
are  going  away?" 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "at  once.  But  it  means  more. 
It  means  that  I've  got  to  find  out  if  I'm — to 
come  back  some  time?" 

"Of  course,  you  are  to  come  back,"  she  said. 

Words  rose  swiftly  to  Pritchard's  lips  and 
came  no  further.  Indeed,  he  appeared  to  swallow 
them. 

127 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"And  I'm  glad  you  are  going  to  make  friends 
with  your  uncle,"  said  Gay. 

"There'll  be  such  lots  of  young  men  here  when 
the  season  opens,"  said  Pritchard. 

"Judging  by  applications,"  said  Gay,  "we  shall 
be  swamped  with  gentlemen  of  all  ages." 

Pritchard's  melancholy  only  deepened.  "Will 
you  come  as  far  as  Carrytown  in  the  Streak?" 
he  asked. 

She  nodded,  and  said  she  would  because  she 
had  some  shopping  to  do. 

During  that  short,  exhilarating  rush  across  the 
lake,  and  afterward  walking  up  and  down  on  the 
board  platform  by  the  side  of  the  waiting  train, 
he  tried  his  best  to  ring  a  little  sentiment  out  of 
her,  but  failed  utterly. 

The  locomotive  whistled,  and  the  conductor 
came  out  of  the  village  drug-store,  staggering 
slightly. 

"I've  left  all  my  dry-fly  tackle,"  said  Pritchard. 
"Will  you  take  care  of  it  for  me  ?" 

"With  pleasure,"  said  Gay. 

"I'd  like  you  to  use  it.  It's  a  lovely  rod  to 
throw  line." 

"All  aboard!" 

"I'd  like  to  bring  you  out  some  rods  and 
things.  May  I  ?" 

128 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"You  bet  you  may!"  exclaimed  Gay. 

Pritchard  sighed.  The  train  creaked,  jolted, 
moved  forward,  stopped,  jerked,  and  moved  for- 
ward again.  Pritchard  waited  until  the  rear 
steps  of  the  rear  car  were  about  to  pass. 

"Good-by,  Miss  Gay!" 

They  shook  hands  firmly,  and  Pritchard  swung 
himself  onto  the  moving  train.  Gay,  walking 
rapidly  and  presently  breaking  into  a  trot,  ac- 
companied him  as  far  as  the  end  of  the  platform. 
She  wanted  to  say  something  that  would  please 
him  very  much  without  encouraging  him  too 
much. 

"Looks  as  if  I  was  after  you !"  she  said. 

Pritchard's  whole  soul  was  in  his  eyes.  And 
there  was  a  large  lump  in  his  throat.  Suddenly 
Gay  reached  the  end  of  the  long  platform  and 
stopped  running.  The  train  was  now  going  quite 
fast  for  an  Adirondack  train.  The  distance  be- 
tween them  widened  rapidly. 

"Wish  you  weren't  going,"  called  Gay. 

And  she  saw  Pritchard  reach  suddenly  upward 
and  pull  the  rope  by  which  trains  are  stopped  in 
emergencies.  While  the  train  was  stopping  and 
the  train  hands  were  trying  to  find  out  who  had 
stopped  it  and  why,  Pritchard  calmly  alighted 
and  returned  to  where  Gay  was  standing. 

129 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  just  had  to  look  at  you  once  more — close," 
he  said;  "you  never  can  tell  what  will  happen  in 
this  world.  I  may  never  see  you  again,  and  the 
thought  is  killing  me.  Think  of  that  once  in  a 
while,  please." 

He  bent  swiftly,  caught  her  hand  in  his,  kissed 
it,  and  was  gone.  Or,  if  not  exactly  gone,  she  saw 
him  no  more,  because  of  suddenly  blinding 
tears. 

When  she  reached  The  Camp,  Arthur  was  at 
the  float  to  meet  her. 

"Phyllis  and  Herring  haven't  come  back,"  he 
said.  "Lee  says  they  went  fishing.  Do  you 
know  where  they  went  ?" 

"I  don't.  And  they  ought  to  have  been  back 
hours  ago." 

"Yes,"  said  Arthur,  "and  we're  all  starting 
out  to  look  for  them.  Care  to  come  with  me  ? " 

"Yes,"  she  said;  "I've  got  to  do  something." 

Something  in  her  voice  took  his  mind  from  the 
more  imminent  matter. 

"What's  wrong,  Gay?" 

She  shook  her  head. 

"Nothing.  Let's  start.  If  Phyl  rowed,  they 
must  have  gone  to  the  nearest  possible  fishing 
grounds." 

At  this  moment  Sam  Langham  came  puffing 
130 


The  Seven  Darlings 

down  from  Cook  House.  He  was  dressed  in  white 
flannels  and  carried  a  revolver. 

"It's  to  signal  with,"  he  explained.  "I'm 
going  to  try  Loon  Brook,  because  it's  the  only 
brook  I  know  when  I  see  it." 

"Bullard's  gone  to  Loon  Brook." 

"Pshaw — can't  I  ever  be  of  any  use!" 

"Good  Lord,"  said  Gay,  "look!" 

There  came  around  the  nearest  bend  a  man 
rowing  one  guide  boat  and  towing  another,  which 
was  empty.  Arthur  called  to  him  in  a  loud,  hoarse 
voice : 

"Where'd  you  find  that  boat  ?" 

"Up  Swamp  Brook,"  came  the  answer. 

Arthur  and  Gay  went  gray  as  ashes. 

"Who's  to  tell  Mary?"  said  Arthur  presently. 

Then  Sam  Langham  spoke. 

"If  you  don't  mind,"  he  said,  "I  think  I  will." 

An  hour  later  the  entire  male  population  of 
The  Camp  was  dragging  Swamp  Brook  for  what 
they  so  dreaded  to  find. 


XV 

IT  wasn't  all  discouragement.  For  now  and 
then  it  seemed  as  if  the  swamp  was  going  to 
have  a  shore  of  dry  land.  At  such  times  Herring 
would  exclaim: 

"There  you  see!  It  had  never  been  done  be- 
fore, and  now  it's  been  done,  and  we've  done  it." 

And  then  it  would  seem  to  Phyllis  as  if  a  great 
weight  of  fear  and  anxiety  had  been  lifted  from 
her. 

But  the  shore  of  the  swamp  always  turned  out 
to  be  an  illusion.  Once  Herring,  firmly  situated 
as  he  believed,  went  suddenly  through  a  crust  of 
sphagnum  moss  and  was  immersed  to  the  arm- 
pits. For  some  moments  he  struggled  grimly  to 
extricate  himself,  and  only  sank  the  deeper.  Then 
he  turned  to  Phyllis  a  face  whimsical  in  spite  of 
its  gravity  and  pallor,  and  said:  "If  you  have 
never  saved  a  man's  life,  now  is  your  chance. 
I'm  afraid  I  can't  get  out  without  help." 

It  was  then  that  her  phenomenally  strong 
little  hands  and  wrists  stood  them  both  in  good 
stead.  The  arches  of  her  feet  against  a  submerged 

132 


The  Seven  Darlings 

root  of  white  cedar,  she  so  pulled  and  tugged,  and 
exhorted  Herring  to  struggle  free,  that  at  last 
he  came  out  of  that  pocket  quagmire  and  lay  ex- 
hausted in  the  ooze  at  her  feet. 

He  was  incased  from  neck  to  foot  in  a  smooth 
coating  of  brown  slime.  Presently  he  rolled  over 
on  his  back  and  looked  up  at  her. 

"There  you  see!"  he  said.  "You'd  never 
saved  a  man's  life  before,  and  now  you've  done  it. 
Please  accept  my  sincere  expressions  of  envy  and 
gratitude —  Why,  you're  crying  !" 

She  was  not  only  crying,  but  she  was  showing 
symptoms  of  incipient  hysteria.  "An  old-fash- 
ioned girl,"  thought  Herring,  "like  Great-grand- 
mother Saltonstall."  He  raised  himself  to  a 
sitting  position  just  in  time  to  slide  an  arm  around 
her  waist  as,  the  hysteria  now  well  under  way, 
she  sat  down  beside  him  and  began  to  wave  her 
hands  up  and  down  like  a  polite  baby  saying 
good-by  to  some  one. 

"One  new  thing  under  the  sun  after  another," 
thought  Herring.  "Never  had  arm  round  hys- 
terical girl's  waist  before.  Got  it  there  now. 
When  you  need  her,  she  takes  a  good  brace  and 
pulls  for  all  she's  worth.  When  she  needs  you, 
she  seats  herself  on  six  inches  of  water  and  yells. 
Just  like  Great-grandmother  Saltonstall."  Aloud 

133 


The  Seven  Darlings 

he  kept  saying:  "That's  right!  Greatest  relief 
in  the  world  !  Go  to  it !"  And  his  arm  tightened 
about  her  with  extraordinary  tenderness. 

Her  hysterics  ended  as  suddenly  as  they  had 
begun.  And  then  she  wasted  a  valuable  half- 
hour  apologizing  for  having  had  them;  Herring 
protesting  all  the  while  that  he  had  enjoyed  them 
just  as  much  as  she  had,  and  that  they  had  done 
him  a  world  of  good.  And  then  they  had  to  stop 
talking  because  their  teeth  began  to  chatter  so 
hard  that  they  simply  couldn't  keep  on.  Herring 
stuttered  something  about,  "Exercise  is  what  a 
body  needs,"  and  they  rose  to  their  feet  and 
fought  their  way  through  a  dense  grove  of  arbor- 
vitae. 

"The  stealthy  Indian  goes  through  such  places 
without  making  a  sound,"  said  Herring. 

"Or  getting  his  moccasins  wet,"  said  Phyllis. 
"Oh  !"  And  she  sank  to  the  waist. 

"Never  mind,"  said  Herring,  "it  will  be 
dark  before  long.  And  when  we  have  no 
choice  of  where  to  step,  maybe  we'll  have  better 
luck." 

"It  will  have  to  be  dark  very  soon,"  said  Phyllis, 
"if  we  have  any  more  of  our  clothes  taken  away 
from  us  by  the  brambles." 

"That's  a  new  idea!"  exclaimed  Herring. 
134 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Young  couple  starve  to  death  in  the  woods  be- 
cause modesty  forbids  them  to  join  their  friends 
in  the  open.  The  head-line  might  be:  'Stripped 
by  Brambles,'  or  'The  Two  Bares.' ' 

He  was  so  pleased  with  his  joke  that  he  had  to 
lean  against  a  tree.  The  laughing  set  him  to 
coughing,  and  Phyllis  beat  him  methodically  be- 
tween the  shoulders. 

Herring  still  refused  to  be  serious.  In  helping 
Phyllis  over  the  bad  places,  he  performed  prodigies 
of  misapplied  strength  and  made  prodigious  puns. 
And  he  said  that  never  in  his  life  had  he  been  in 
such  a  delightful  scrape. 

Once,  while  they  were  resting,  Phyllis  said: 

"All  you  seem  to  think  of  is  the  fun  you're 
having.  Most  men  would  be  thinking  about  the 
anxiety  they  were  causing  others  and  about  the 
miseries  of  their  companion." 

"But,"  he  protested,  "you  are  enjoying  your- 
self too.  You  don't  think  you  are,  but  you  are. 
It's  your  philosophy  that  is  wrong.  You  like  to 
live  too  much  in  the  present.  I  like  to  lay  by 
stores  of  delightful  memories  against  rainy  days. 
The  worse  you  feel  now,  the  more  you'll  enjoy 
remembering  how  you  felt — some  evening,  soon 
— your  back  against  soft  cushions  and  the  soles  of 
your  feet  toward  the  fire." 

135 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Ugh!"  shuddered  Phyllis.  "  Don't  talk  about 
fires.  Oh,  dear!" 

"What's  wrong  now  !  " 

"I'm  so  stiff  I  don't  think  I  can  take  another 
step.  We  oughtn't  to  have  rested  so  long." 

But  she  did  take  another  step,  and  would  have 
fallen  heavily  if  Herring  had  not  caught  her. 
A  moment  later  she  lost  a  shoe  in  the  ooze,  and 
wasted  much  precious  daylight  in  vain  efforts  to 
locate  and  recover  it. 

"Sit  down  on  that  root,"  commanded  Herring. 
And  she  obeyed.  He  knelt  before  her,  lifted  her 
wet,  muddy  little  stockinged  foot  and  set  it  on 
his  knee. 

"What  size,  please,  miss?"  he  asked,  giving 
an  excellent  imitation  of  a  somewhat  officious 
salesman. 

"I  don't  know;  I  have  them  made,"  said 
Phyllis  wearily,  but  trying  her  best  to 
smile. 

"Something  in  this  style?"  suggested  Herring. 
He  had  secretly  removed  one  of  his  own  shoes, 
and  handling  it  with  a  kind  of  comic  reverence, 
as  if  the  soggy,  muddy  thing  was  a  precious  work 
of  art,  he  presented  it  to  her  attention. 

And  then  Phyllis  smiled  without  even  trying 
and  then  laughed. 

136 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  said  a  shoe,"  she  said,  "not  a  travelling  bath- 
tub." 

But  he  slipped  that  great  shoe  over  her  little 
foot,  and  so  bound  it  to  her  ankle  with  his  hand- 
kerchief and  necktie  that  it  promised  to  stay  on. 

"But  you  ?"  she  said. 

"Luck  is  with  me  to-day/*  said  Herring.  "Any- 
body can  walk  through  an  impassable  swamp,  but 
few  are  given  the  opportunity  to  hop.  General 
Sherman  should  have  thought  of  that.  It  would 
have  showed  the  Confederates  just  what  he 
thought  of  them  if  instead  of  marching  through 
Georgia  he  had  hopped." 

And  he  pursued  this  new  train  of  thought  for 
some  time.  He  improvised  words  to  old  tunes, 
and  sang  them  at  the  top  of  his  lungs:  "As  we 
were  hopping  through  Georgia."  And  last  and 
worst  he  sang:  "There'll  be  a  hop  time  in  the  old 
town  to-night."  And  when  he  had  occasion  to 
address  Phyllis  directly,  he  no  longer  called  her 
Miss  Darling,  but  "Goody  Two  Shoes."  He  said 
that  his  own  name  was  not  Mr.  Herring  but  Mr. 
Hopper,  and  that  he  was  a  famous  cotillon  leader. 

But  even  he  became  a  little  quiet  when  the 
light  began  to  fail,  and  a  little  serious. 

"Whatever  happens,"  he  said,  "it  will  be  a 
great  comfort  to  you  to  realize  that  it's  entirely 

137 


The  Seven  Darlings 

my  fault.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  had  gotten 
back  into  that  boat,  we  might  have  been  drowned 
long  before  this." 

A  little  later  Phyllis  said:  "I'm  about  all  in. 
It's  too  dark  to  see.  I " 

"Couldn't  have  chosen  a  better  camping  site 
myself,"  said  Herring  humbly.  "First  thing  to 
think  of  is  the  water-supply — and  fuel.  Now,  here 
the  fuel  grows  right  out  of  the  water " 

"We  haven't  any  matches." 

"Yes,  we  have;  but  they  are  wet  and  won't  light." 

"We'll  die  of  cold  before  morning,"  said  Phyllis; 
"there's  no  use  pretending  we  won't." 

"On  the  contrary.  Now  is  the  time  to  pretend 
all  sorts  of  things.  Did  you  ever  try  to  make  a 
fire  by  rubbing  two  sticks  together?" 

"Never." 

"Well,  try  it.  It  will  make  you  warmer  than 
the  fire  would.  Afterward  we  will  play  'Paddy 
cake,  Paddy  cake,'  and  *  Bean  Porridge  hot.' ' 

"Do  men  in  danger  always  carry  on  the  way 
you  do?"  asked  Phyllis. 

"Always,"  he  answered. 

"I  can  understand  trying  to  be  funny  during  a 
cavalry  charge,  or  while  falling  off  a  cliff,"  said 
Phyllis,  "but  not  while  slowly  and  miserably  con- 
gealing." 

138 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"You  are  not  a  Bostonian,"  said  Herring. 
"Half  the  inhabitants  of  that  municipality  freeze 
to  death  and  the  others  burn." 

"I've  stayed  in  Boston,"  said  Phyllis,  "and 
the  only  difference  that  I  could  see  between  it  and 
other  places  was  that  the  people  were  more  agree- 
able and  things  were  done  in  better  taste.  And 
what  gardens !" 

"Ever  seen  the  Arboretum?" 

"Havel?" 

"In  lilac  time?" 

"Mm!" 

She  was  on  her  favorite  topic.  She  forgot  that 
she  was  cold,  wet,  miserable,  and  a  frightful 
anxiety  to  her  family. 

"But  why  be  an  innkeeper?"  asked  Herring. 
"Why  not  set  up  as  a  landscape-gardener?" 

"I  don't  know  enough.    But  I've  often  thought 


"I've  got  five  hundred  acres  outside  of  Boston 
that  I'd  like  to  turn  you  loose  on." 

"You  speak  as  if  I  were  a  goat." 

"The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  drain  the  swamps. 
Now,  I'll  make  you  a  proposition.  I  can't  put  it 
in  writing,  because  it's  too  dark  to  see  and  I  have 
no  writing  materials,  but  there  is  nothing  fishy 
about  us  Herrings.  You  to  landscape  my  place 

139 


The  Seven  Darlings 

for  me,  cause  a  suitable  house  to  be  built,  and  so 
forth;  I  to  pay  you  a  thousand  dollars  a  month, 
and  a  five  per  cent  commission  on  the  total  ex- 
penditure/* 

"And  what  might  that  amount  to?" 

"What  you  please,"  said  Herring  politely. 

"Who  says  Bostonians  are  cold?"  exclaimed 
Phyllis.  And  there  began  to  float  through  her  head 
lovely  visions  of  landscapes  of  her  own  making. 

"You're  still  joking,  aren't  you?"  she  said 
after  a  while. 

"I  don't  know  landscapes  well  enough  to  joke 
about  them,"  he  said. 

"But  I  can't  design  a  house!" 

"Oh,  you  will  have  architects  to  do  that  part. 
You  just  pick  the  general  type." 

"What  kind  of  a  house  do  you  want  ?" 

"It  depends  on  what  kind  of  a  house  you  want." 

"Oh,  dear,"  she  exclaimed,  "what  fun  it  would 
be!" 

"Will  you  do  it?" 

She  was  tempted  beyond  her  strength. 

"Yes,"  she  said,  and  began  to  talk  with  ir- 
responsible delight  and  enthusiasm. 

"Ah,"  thought  Herring  to  himself,  "find  out 
what  really  interests  a  girl  and  she'll  forget  all 
her  troubles." 

140 


The  Seven  Darlings 

It  began  suddenly  to  grow  light. 

"Good  heavens!"  exclaimed  Phyllis.  "The 
woods  must  be  on  fire!  Oh,  the  poor  trees!" 

"It  isn't  fire,"  said  Herring,  "it's  the  moon — 
'Queen  and  huntress,  chaste  and  fair — goddess 
excellently  bright' — was  ever  such  luck  !  I  hoped 
we  were  going  to  stand  here  cosily  all  night 
talking  about  marigolds  and  cowslips  and  wall- 
papers, and  now  it's  our  duty  to  move  on.  Come, 
Goody  Two  Shoes,  Policeman  Moon  has  told  us 
to  move  on.  I  shall  never  forget  this  spot.  And 
I  shan't  ever  be  able  to  find  it  again." 

They  toiled  forward  a  little  way,  and  lo !  upon 
a  sudden,  they  came  to  firm  and  rocky  land  that 
sloped  abruptly  upward  from  the  swamp.  They 
climbed  for  several  hundred  feet  and  came  out 
upon  a  bare  hilltop,  from  which  could  be  seen 
billows  of  forest  and  one  great  horn  of  Half  Moon 
Lake,  silver  in  the  moonlight. 

"Why,  it  isn't  a  mile  to  camp,"  said  Phyllis. 
She  swayed  a  little,  tottered,  rocked  backward 
and  then  forward,  and  fell  against  Herring's 
breast  in  a  dead  faint. 

In  a  few  moments  she  came  to  and  found 
that  she  was  being  carried  in  strong  arms.  It 
was  a  novel,  delicious,  and  restful  sensation — 
one  which  it  seemed  immensely  sensible  to 

141 


The  Seven  Darlings 

prolong.  She  did  not,  then,  immediately  open 
her  eyes. 

She  heard  a  voice  cheerful,  but  very  much  out 
of  breath,  murmuring  over  her: 

"New  experience.  Never  carried  girl  before. 
Experience  worth  repeating.  Like  'em  old- 
fashioned — like  Great-grandmother  Saltonstall. 
Like  'em  to  faint." 

A  few  minutes  later,  "Where  am  I  ?"  said 
Phyllis. 

"In  my  arms,"  said  Herring  phlegmatically, 
as  if  that  was  one  of  her  habitual  residing  places. 

"Put  me  down,  please." 

"I  hear,"  said  he,  "and  I  obey  with  extreme 
reluctance.  I  made  a  bet  with  myself  that  I 
could  carry  you  all  the  way.  And  now  I  shall 
never  know.  Feel  better?" 

"Mm,"  she  said,  and  "What  a  nuisance  I've 
been  all  through  !  But  it  was  pretty  bad,  some  of 
it,  wasn't  it?" 

"Already  you  are  beginning  to  take  pleasure 
in  remembering.  What  did  I  tell  you  ?  Don't 
be  frightened.  I  am  going  to  shout." 

He  shouted  in  a  voice  of  thunder,  and  before 
the  echo  came  back  to  them  another  voice,  loud 
and  excited,  rose  in  the  forest.  And  they  heard 
smashings  and  crashings,  as  a  wild  bull  tearing 

142 


The  Seven  Darlings 

through  brittle  bushes.  And  presently  Sam 
Langham  burst  out  of  the  thicket  with  a  shower 
of  twigs  and  pine-needles. 

His  delight  was  not  to  be  measured  in  words. 
He  apostrophized  himself. 

"Good  old  Sam!"  he  said.  "He  knew  you 
weren't  drowned  in  the  brook.  He  knew  it 
would  be  just  like  Herring  to  want  to  cross  that 
swamp.  As  soon  as  I  heard  somebody  say  that 
it  was  impassable,  I  said:  'Where  is  the  other  side? 
That's  the  place  to  look  for  them.'  But  why 
didn't  you  make  more  noise?" 

"Oh,"  said  Herring,  "we  were  so  busy  talking 
and  exploring  and  doing  things  that  had  never 
been  done  before  that  it  never  occurred  to  us  to 
shout." 

"Herring,"  said  Langham  sternly,  "you  have 
the  makings  of  a  hero,  but  not,  I  am  afraid,  of  a 
woodsman." 

"Well,  we're  safe  enough  now,"  said  Herring. 
"Excuse  me  a  moment " 

"  Excuse  you  !     What  ? " 

"It's  very  silly — been  sick  you  know — over- 
exertion — think  better  faint  and  get  it  over  with." 

Langham  knelt  and  lifted  Herring's  head. 

"You  lift  his  feet,"  he  said  to  Phyllis,  "send 
the  blood  to  his  heart  ;  bring  him  to." 

143 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Herring  began  to  come  out  of  his  faint. 

"This  young  man,"  said  Langham,  "may  be 
something  of  an  ass,  but  he's  got  sand." 

"He  carried  me  a  long  way,"  said  Phyllis,  the 
tears  racing  down  her  cheeks;  "and  he's  only 
just  over  typhoid,  and  he  never  stopped  being 
cheerful  and  gallant,  and  he  isn't  an  ass!" 

Herring  came  to,  but  was  not  able  to  stand. 
He  had  kept  up  as  long  as  he  had  to,  and  now 
there  was  no  more  strength  in  him. 

Phyllis  accepted  the  loan  of  Langham's  coat. 

"I'll  stay  with  him,"  she  said,  "while  you  go 
for  help." 

The  moment  Langham's  back  was  turned  she 
spread  the  coat  over  Herring. 

"Please— don't!"  he  said. 

"You  be  quiet,"  said  she  sharply.  "How 
do  you  feel?" 

"Pretty  well  used  up,  thank  you.  Hope 
you'll  'scuse  me  for  this  collapse.  Shan't  hap- 
pen again.  Lucky  thing  you  and  I  don't  both 
collapse  same  moment." 

A  faint  moan  was  wrung  from  him.  She 
touched  his  cheek  with  her  hand.  It  was  hot 
as  fire.  She  was  an  old-fashioned  girl,  and  the 
instinct  of  nursing  was  strong  in  her. 

She  was  an  old-fashioned  girl.  There  had 
144 


The  Seven  Darlings 

almost  always  been  a  young  man  in  her  life 
about  whom,  for  a  while,  she  wove  more  or  less 
intensely  romantic  fancies.  They  came;  they 
went.  But  almost  always  there  was  one. 

She  raised  her  lovely  face  and  looked  at  the 
moon,  and  made  an  unspoken  confession. 
There  had  always  been  one.  Well,  now  there 
was  another! 


145 


XVI 

WHEN  the  real  season  opened,  you  might 
have  thought  that  the  whole  venture  was 
Mr.  Sam  Langham's  and  that  he  had  risked  the 
whole  of  his  money  in  it.  Without  being  offi- 
cious, he  had  words  of  anxious  advice  for  the 
Darlings,  severally  and  collectively.  His  early 
breakfasts  in  Smoke  House  with  Mary,  the  chef 
beaming  upon  the  efficient  and  friendly  pair,  lost 
something  of  their  free  and  easy  social  quality, 
and  became  opportunities  for  the  gravest  dis- 
cussions of  ways  and  means. 

The  opening  day  would  see  every  spare  room 
in  the  place  occupied — by  a  man.  To  Mary  it 
seemed  a  little  curious  that  so  few  women,  so 
few  families,  and  so  many  bachelors  had  applied 
for  rooms.  But  to  Sam  Langham  the  reasons  for 
this  were  clear  and  definite. 

"It  was  the  picture  in  the  first  issues  of  your 
advertisement  that  did  it.  I  only  compliment 
and  felicitate  you  when  I  say  that  every  bachelor 
who  saw  that  picture  must  have  made  up  his 
mind  to  come  here  if  he  possibly  could.  And  that 

146 


The  Seven  Darlings 

every  woman  who  saw  it  must  have  felt  that  she 
could  spend  a  happier  summer  somewhere  else. 
Now,  if  you  had  circulated  a  picture  of  half  a 
dozen  men,  each  as  good-looking  as  your  brother 
Arthur,  the  results  would  have  been  just  the 
opposite." 

"Women  aren't  such  idiots  about  other  women's 
looks  as  you  think  they  are,"  said  Mary. 

"I  didn't  say  they  were  idiots;  I  intimated 
that  they  were  sensible.  The  prettiest  woman 
at  a  summer  resort  always  has  a  good  time — not 
the  best,  necessarily,  but  very  good.  Now,  no 
woman  could  look  at  that  picture  of  you  and 
your  sisters  and  expect  to  be  considered  the  pret- 
tiest woman  here.  Could  she,  Chef?" 

Chef  laughed  a  loud,  scornful,  defiant,  gesticu- 
lant,  Gallic  laugh.  His  good-natured  features  fo- 
cussed  into  a  scathing  Parisian  sneer;  he  turned 
a  delicate  omelette  over  in  the  air  and  said, 
"Lala!" 

"There  are,"  continued  Mr.  Langham,  "only 
half  a  dozen  women  in  the  world  who  can  com- 
pare in  looks  with  you  and  your  sisters.  There's 
the  Princess  Oducalchi — your  mother.  There's 
the  Countess  of  Kingston,  Mrs.  Waring,  Miss  Vir- 
ginia Clark — but  these  merely  compare.  They 
don't  compete." 

147 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Mr.  Langham  tried  to  look  very  sly  and  wicked, 
and  he  sang  in  a  humming  voice:  "Oh,  to  be  a 
Mussulman,  now  that  spring  is  here." 

"Coffee?"  said  Mary. 

"Please." 

"Well,"  said  she,  as  she  poured,  "the  whys  and 
wherefores  don't  matter.  It's  to  be  a  bachelor 
resort — that  seems  definitely  settled.  But  I 
think  we  had  better  send  the  triplets  away.  I 
don't  want  the  Pritchard  and  Herring  episodes 
repeated  while  my  nerves  are  in  this  present  state. 
And  there's  Lee — if  she  isn't  leading  Renier  into 
one  folly  after  another,  I  don't  know  what  she  is 
doing.  They  seem  to  think  that  keeping  an  inn 
is  a  mere  excuse  for  flirtation." 

"Don't  send  them  away,"  said  Langham.  "If 
you  sent  those  three  girls  to  a  place  where  there 
weren't  any  men  at  all — they'd  flirt  with  their 
shadows.  Better  have  'em  flirting  where  you  can 
watch  'em  than  where  you  can't.  And  besides — • 
are  you  quite  sure  that  the  Pritchard  and  Herring 
episodes  were  mere  flirtations  ?  Day  before  yes- 
terday I  came  upon  Miss  Gay  by  accident;  she 
was  practising  casting." 

"That's  how  she  spends  half  her  time." 

"But  she  was  practising  with  Pritchard's  rod! 

Yesterday  I  came  upon  her  in  the  same  place ' 

148 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"By  accident?"  smiled  Mary. 
"By  design,"  he  said  honestly.  "And  this 
time  she  wasn't  casting.  She  had  the  rod  lying 
across  her  knees,  and  her  eyes  were  turned  dream- 
ily toward  the  bluest  and  most  distant  mountain- 
top." 

'Why  do  you  look  at  that  mountain  ?'  I  said. 
'Because  it's  blue,  too,'  said  she. 
'  'And  what  makes  you  blue?'  I  asked. 

'The  same  cause  that  makes  the  mountain 
blue,'  said  she. 

'Hum,'  said  I.    'Then  it  must  be  distance.' 
1  'Something   like   that,'   she   said.      'I   some- 
times think  I'm  the  most  distant  person  in  the 
world.' 

'You're  probably  not  the  only  person  who 
thinks  that!'  said  I. 

"And  she  said,  'No?  Really?'  And  that  was 
all  I  could  get  out  of  her.  Except  that,  just  as  I 
was  walking  away,  I  heard  a  sharp  whistling 
sound  and  my  cap — my  new  plaid  cap — was  sud- 
denly tweaked  from  the  top  of  my  head  and 
hung  in  a  tree.  She  must  have  practised  a  lot 
with  that  rod  of  Pritchard's.  It  was  a  beautiful 

cast " 

"She  might  have  put  your  eye  out !"  exclaimed 
Mary. 

149 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"She  hung  the  apple  of  my  eye  in  a  tree,"  said 
he  dolefully.  "You  know  that  one  with  the 
green  and  brown  ?  And  last  night  it  rained." 

"I  hope  she  expressed  sorrow,"  said  Mary. 

"She  was  going  to,  but  I  got  laughing  and  then 
she  did." 

"What  a  dear  you  are!"  exclaimed  Mary. 
"And  so  you  think  she's  making  herself  mourn- 
ful over  Mr.  Pritchard  ?  And  what  are  the 
reasons  for  thinking  that  Phyllis  is  serious  about 
Mr.  Herring?" 

"He's  sent  for  blue-prints  of  his  property  out- 
side Boston,  and  they  are  busy  with  plans  for 
landscaping  it.  Narrow  escape  that !  I  didn't 
let  on;  but  the  second  day  I  thought  he  was  a 
goner.  I  did." 

Mary  sighed. 

"We  might  just  as  well  have  called  it  a  matri- 
monial agency  in  the  first  place  instead  of  an 
inn." 

Mr.  Langham  rose  reluctantly. 

"I  have  an  engagement  with  Miss  Maud,"  he 
explained. 

The  faintest  ripple  of  disappointment  flitted 
across  Mary's  forehead. 

"I've  promised  to  help  her  with  her  books," 
said  he.  "Some  of  the  journal  entries  puzzle  her; 
•  150 


"Why  do  you  look  at  that  mountain?'  I  said.     'Because  it's 
blue,  too,'  said  she" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

and  she  has  an  idea  that  The  Inn  ought  to  have 
more  capital.  And  we  are  going  into  that,  too." 

"I  hope,"  said  Mary,  "that  you  aren't  going 
to  lend  us  money  without  consulting  me." 

Chef  was  in  a  distant  corner,  quite  out  of  ear- 
shot. And  Mr.  Langham,  emboldened  by  one  of 
the  most  delicious  breakfasts  he  had  ever  eaten, 
shot  an  arch  glance  at  Miss  Darling. 

"I  wouldn't  consult  you  about  lending  money," 
he  said;  "I  wouldn't  consult  you  about  giving 
money.  But  any  time  you'll  let  me  consult  you 
about  sharing  money " 

Panic  overtook  him,  and  he  turned  and  fled. 
But  upon  Mary's  brow  was  no  longer  any  ripple 
of  disappointment — only  the  unbroken  alabaster 
of  smooth  serenity.  She  reached  for  the  house- 
hold keys  and  said  to  herself: 

"Maud  is  a  steady  girl — even  if  the  rest  of  us 
aren't." 

She  caught  a  glimpse  of  herself  in  the  bottom 
of  a  highly  polished  copper  utensil  and  couldn't 
help  being  pleased  with  what  she  saw. 

On  the  way  to  the  office  Mr.  Langham  fell  in 
with  Arthur.  This  one,  Uncas  scolding  and 
chatting  upon  his  shoulder,  was  starting  off  for 
a  day's  botanizing — or  dreaming  maybe. 

"Arthur — one    moment,    please,"    said    Lang- 


The  Seven  Darlings 

ham.    "As  the  head  of  the  family  I  want  to  con- 
sult you  about  something." 

"Yes?"  said  Arthur  sweetly.  "Of  course, 
Uncas,  you  are  too  noisy."  And  he  put  the  of- 
fended little  beast  into  his  green  collecting  case. 

"I  never  would  have  come  here,"  said  Mr. 
Langham,  "if  it  hadn't  been  for  that  advertise- 
ment." 

Arthur  frowned  slightly. 

"You  mean " 

"Yes.  But  I  came,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  "not 
as  a  pagan  Turk  but  as  a  Christian  gentleman. 
I  was  just  about  to  take  passage  for  Liverpool 
when  I  saw  your  sister  Mary  looking  out  at  me 
from  The  Four  Seasons.  And  so  I  wrote  to  ask 
if  I  could  come  here.  I  have  lived  well,  but  I  am 
not  disappointed.  I  am  very  rich " 

"My  dear  Sam,"  said  Arthur,  "you  are  the 
best  fellow  in  the  world.  What  do  you  want  of 
me?" 

"To  know  that  you  think  I'd  try  my  best  to 
make  a  girl  happy  if  she'd  let  me." 

"A  girl  ?"  smiled  Arthur.     "Any  girl  ?" 

"In  all  the  world,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  "there 
is  only  one  girl." 

"If  I  were  you,"  said  Arthur,  "I'd  ask  her 
what  she  thought  about  it." 

152 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Langham  assumed  a  look  of  terrible  gloom. 

"If  she  didn't  think  well  of  it  I'd  want  to  cut 
my  throat.  I'd  rather  keep  on  living  in  blissful 
uncertainty,  but  I  wanted  you  to  know — why  I 
am  here,  and  why  I  want  to  stay  on  and  on." 

"Why,  I'm  very  glad  to  know,"  said  Arthur, 
"but  surely  it's  your  own  affair." 

Mr.  Langham  shook  his  head. 

"Last  night,"  said  he,  "I  was  dozing  on  my 
little  piazza.  Who  should  row  by  at  a  distance 
but  Miss  Gay  and  Miss  Lee.  You  know  how 
sounds  carry  through  an  Adirondack  night  ? 
Miss  Lee  said  to  Miss  Gay:  *I  tell  you  he  doesn't. 
Not  really.  He's  just  a  male  flirt/  'A  butter- 
fly,' said  Miss  Gay." 

"But  how  do  you  know  they  were  referring  to 
you?" 

"By  the  way  the  blessed  young  things  laughed 
at  the  word  'butterfly'.  So  I  wanted  you  to  know 
that  my  intentions  are  tragically  serious,  no  mat- 
ter what  others  may  say.  Whatever  I  may  be, 
and  I  have  been  insulted  more  than  once  about 
my  figure  and  my  habits,  I  am  not  a  flirt.  I  am 
just  as  romantic  as  if  I  was  a  living  skeleton." 

Here  Arthur's  head  went  back,  and  he  laughed 
till  the  tears  came.  And  Mr.  Langham  couldn't 
help  laughing,  too. 

153 


The  Seven  Darlings 

A  few  moments  later  he  was  going  over  The 
Inn  books  with  Maud  Darling  and  displaying 
for  her  edification  an  astonishing  knowledge  of 
entries  and  a  truly  magical  facility  in  figuring. 
Suddenly,  apropos  of  something  not  in  the  least 
germane,  he  said: 

"Miss  Maud,  when  in  your  opinion  is  the  most 
opportune  time  for  a  man  to  propose  to  a  girl?" 

"When  he's  got  her  alone,"  said  she  promptly, 
"and  has  just  been  dazzling  her  with  a  display  of 
his  erudition  and  understanding." 

And  she,  whom  Mary  had  described  as  the  one 
steady  sister  in  the  lot,  flung  him  a  melting  and 
piercing  glance.  But  Mr.  Langham  was  not  de- 
ceived. 

X"I  ask  you  an  academic  question,"  he  said, 
"and  you  give  me  an  absolutely  cradle-snatching 
answer.  I  may  look  easy,  Miss  Maud,  but  there 
are  people  who  will  protect  me." 

"The  best  time  to  propose  to  a  girl  ?  You 
really  want  to  know  ?  I  thought  you  were  just 
starting  one  of  your  jokes." 

"If  I  am,"  said  he,  "the  joke  will  be  on  me. 
But  I  really  want  to  know." 

"The  best  moment,"  said  she,  "is  that  moment 
in  which  she  learns  that  one  of  her  friends  or  one 
of  her  sisters  younger  than  she  is  engaged  to  be 

154 


The  Seven  Darlings 

married.  When  an  unengaged  girl  hears  of  an- 
other girl's  engagement  she  has  a  momentary 
panic,  during  which  she  is  helpless  and  defenseless. 
That  is  my  best  judgment,  Mr.  Sam  Langham. 
And  the  older  the  girl  the  greater  the  panic.  And 
now  I've  betrayed  my  sex.  In  fact,  I  have  told 
you  absolutely  all  that  is  definitely  known  about 
girls." 

Just  outside  the  office  he  met  Gay. 

"Halloo!"  she  said. 

He  only  made  signs  at  her  and  flapped  his 
arms  up  and  down. 

"  They  can't  talk,"  he  said. 

"Who  can't  talk?" 

He  held  her  with  a  stern  glance,  and  if  the  word 
had  been  hissable,  would  have  hissed  it. 

"Butterflies,"  he  said. 

Then  Miss  Gay  turned  the  color  of  a  scarlet 
maple  in  the  fall  of  the  year.  Then  she  squealed 
and  ran. 


XVII 

'  \  RE  we  all  here  ? "  asked  Mary. 
JT\.  She  had  summoned  her  sisters  and  Arthur 
to  the  office  for  a  conference. 

"All  except  Sam  Langham,"  said  Gay. 

"I  didn't  know  that  he  was  one  of  the  family," 
said  Mary. 

"Of  course,  you  know"  said  Gay;  "you  would. 
7  was  just  guessing." 

"Well,  he  isn't,"  said  Mary,  trying  not  to 
change  color  or  to  enjoy  being  teased  about  Mr. 
Langham. 

The  triplets  sat  in  a  row  upon  a  bench  made 
of  little  birch  logs  with  the  bark  on.  It  was  not 
soft  sitting,  as  Lee  whispered,  but  one  had  one's 
back  to  the  light,  and  in  case  one  had  done  some- 
thing wrong  without  knowing  it  and  was  in  for 
a  scolding,  that  would  prove  an  immense  advan- 
tage. 

"What  I  wanted  to  say,"  said  Mary,  "is  just 
this " 

She  stood  up  and  looked  rather  more  at  the 
triplets  than  any  one  else,  so  that  Lee  exclaimed, 

156 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Votes  for  women,"  and  Gay  echoed  her  with, 
"Yes,  but  none  for  poor  little  girls  in  their  teens." 

"Hitherto,"  continued  the  orator,  "The  Inn 
has  been  only  informally  open.  It's  been  more 
like  having  a  few  friends  stopping  with  us.  We 
had  to  see  more  or  less  of  them.  But  after  to-day 
there  will  be  a  crowd,  and  I  think  it  would  be  more 
dignified  and  pleasanter  for  them  if  some  of  us 
kept  ourselves  a  little  more  to  ourselves.  What 
do  you  think,  Arthur?" 

Arthur  looked  up  sweetly.  It  was  evident 
that  he  had  not  been  listening. 

"Why,  Mary,"  he  said,  "I  think  it  might  be 
managed  with  infinite  patience." 

The  triplets  giggled;  Maud  and  Eve  exchanged 
amused  looks. 

"Arthur,"  said  Mary,  "you  can  make  one  con- 
tribution to  this  discussion  if  you  want  to.  You 
can  tell  us  what  you  are  really  thinking  about, 
so  that  we  needn't  waste  time  trying  to  guess." 

"Why,"  said  he  gently,  "you  know  I  have 
quite  a  knack  with  animals,  taming  them  and 
training  them,  and  I  was  wondering  if  it  would 
be  possible  to  train  a  snail.  That's  what  I  was 
thinking  about.  I  have  a  couple  in  my  pocket  at 
the  moment,  and " 

"Never  mind  now,"  said  Mary  hurriedly,  and 
157 


The  Seven  Darlings 

she  turned  to  the  triplets.     "What  do  you  think 
of  what  I  said  ? " 

"I  think  it  was  tortuous  and  involved,"  said 
Lee,  "and  that  it  would  hardly  bear  repetition." 

"It  smacked  of  paternalism,"  said  Gay.  And 
even  Phyllis,  her  mind  upon  the  convalescing 
Herring,  was  moved  to  speak. 

"You  said  it  would  be  more  dignified  for  some 
of  us  to  keep  to  ourselves.  Perhaps  it  would- 
You  said  it  would  be  pleasanter  for  the  people 
who  are  coming  here  to  stay.  I  doubt  it!" 

"Bully  for  you,  old  girl,"  shouted  Lee  and  Gay; 
"sick  her!"  ' 

Mary  moaned.  She  was  proof  against  their 
hostilities,  but  the  language  in  which  they  were 
couched  pierced  her  to  the  marrow. 

"I  am  sure,"  she  said,  "that  Maud  and  Eve 
will  agree  with  me." 

"Of  course,"  said  Eve. 

"Naturally,"  said  Maud. 

"There!"  exclaimed  Mary,  with  evident  tri- 
umph. 

"We  agree,"  said  Eve,  "that  some  of  us  should 
keep  ourselves  more  to  ourselves." 

And  she  looked  sternly  at  the  triplets.  But 
then  she  turned  and  looked  sternly  at  Mary  and 
rose  to  her  feet. 

158 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"We  think,"  she  said  with  a  / 'accuse  intonation, 
"that  those  who  haven't  kept  themselves  to 
themselves  should,  and  that  those  who  have — 
shouldn't.  Maud  and  I,  for  instance,  haven't 
the  slightest  objection  to  being  fetched  for  and 
carried  for  by  attractive  young  men.  Have  we, 
Maud  ?  But  hitherto,  as  must  have  been  obvious 
to  the  veriest  nincompoop,  we  have  done  our  own 
fetching  and  carrying." 

There  was  a  short  silence.  Mary  blushed. 
Arthur  fidgeted.  He  was  wondering  if  snails 
preferred  the  human  voice  or  whistling. 

"I'm  quite  sure,"  said  Maud,  "that  I  haven't 
been  wandering  over  the  hills  with  future  earls, 
or  lost  in  swamps  with  interesting  invalids,  or 
basked  morning  after  morning  in  the  sunny  smile 
of  a  gourmet " 

Mary  paled  under  this  attack. 

"Mr.  Langham  is  altogether  different,"  she 
said. 

"Oh,  quite!"  cried  Lee. 

"Utterly,  absolutely  different!"  cried  Gay. 
"To  begin  with,  he's  richer;  and  to  end  with,  he's 
fatter." 

"I  shouldn't  have  said  'fat,'"  said  Lee.  "I 
should  have  said  'well-larded,'  but  then  I  am 
something  of  a  stylist." 

159 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Sam  Langham,"  said  Mary,  "is  everybody's 
friend.  And  he's  an  immense  help  in  lots  of 
ways;  and  then  he  has  a  certain  definite  interest 
in  The  Inn.  Because,  if  we  need  it,  he's  going  to 
lend  us  money  to  carry  our  accounts." 

Gay  whispered  to  Lee  behind  her  hand.  Lee 
giggled. 

"What  was  that?"  asked  Mary  sharply. 

"Only  a  quotation." 

"What  quotation?" 

"Oh,  Gay  just  said  something  about  'Bought 
and  Paid  For.'  " 

Here  Arthur  interrupted. 

"They're  like  snails,"  said  he  to  Mary.  "You 
can  only  train  'em  with  infinite  patience." 

Phyllis  rose  suddenly  and  became  the  cyno- 
sure of  all  eyes  except  her  own,  whose  particular 
cynosure  at  the  moment  was  the  floor.  She 
moved  toward  the  door. 

"Where  are  you  off  to  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"I'm  just  going  to  speak  to  Chef." 

"What  about?" 

"About  some  chicken  broth." 

"For  yourself?" 

The  gentle  Phyllis  was  being  goaded  beyond 
endurance.  At  the  door  she  turned  and  lifted 
her  great  eyes  to  Mary's. 

160 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"No,"  she  said  bitterly;  "it's  for  Arthur's 
snails." 

There  was  a  silence. 

"If  there's  any  voting,"  said  Phyllis,  "I  give 
my  proxy  to  Gay."  And  she  vanished  through 
the  door. 

"I'm  sure,"  said  Mary,  "I  don't  know  what 
the  modern  young  girl  is  coming  to ! " 

"I  know  where  that  one  is  going  to,"  said  Gay; 
"spilling  the  chicken  broth  in  her  unseemly 
haste." 

Then  Arthur  spoke. 

"The  modern  young  girl,"  he  said,  "is  coming 
to  just  where  her  grandmother  came,  and  by  the 
same  road.  Girls  will  be  girls.  So  let's  be  thank- 
ful that  the  men  who  have  come  here  so  far  have 
been — men.  And  hopeful  that  those  who  are  to 
come  will  be  also.  I've  lived  too  much  with 
nature  not  to  know  what's  natural — when  I  see 
it." 

"Do  you  think,"  said  Gay  sweetly,  "that  it's 
natural  for  a  man  to  eat  as  much  as  Sam  Lang- 
ham  does?"  * 

"As  natural  under  the  peculiar  circumstances," 
said  Arthur,  "as  it  is  for  you  to  tease." 

Lee  rose. 

"And  you?"  said  Mary,  smiling  at  last. 
161 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Oh/*  said  Lee  witheringly,  "I  have  an  en- 
gagement to  carve  initials  surrounded  by  a  heart 
on  a  birch-tree." 

And  when  Lee  had  gone  Gay  spoke  up. 

"I  shouldn't  wonder,"  said  she,  "if,  by  way  of 
a  blind,  the  baggage  had  told  the  truth." 

"We  should  never  have  called  it  The  Inn," 
said  Mary;  "we  should  have  called  it  The  Matri- 
monial Agency." 

"Every  pretty  girl,"  said  Arthur,  "is  a  matri- 
monial agency." 

At  this  moment  Uncas,  the  chipmunk,  rushed 
screaming  into  the  room  and  flung  himself  into 
Arthur's  lap.  Arthur  comforted  the  little  beast, 
and  noticed  that  his  nose  and  face  bore  fresh 
evidences  of  a  fight.  Uncas  complained  very 
bitterly;  he  was  evidently  trying  to  talk. 

"Is  Stripes  hurt?"  asked  Mary. 

"It's  his  feelings,"  said  Arthur.  "He's  been 
made  a  victim  of  misplaced  confidence.  Some 
young  woman  has  been  encouraging  him." 

"Poor  little  man !"  said  Gay  with  sudden  emo- 
tion. "Did  urns  want  some  nice  vasy  on  urns 
poor  sick  nose  ?" 

"He  would  only  lick  it  off,"  regretted  Arthur. 

Mr-  Langham's  jolly  face  appeared  in  the  open 
door. 

162 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I've  seen  two  depart,"  he  said,  "and  thought 
maybe  the  meeting  was  over." 

"It  is,"  said  Mary,  and,  after  a  moment's 
hesitation,  she  boldly  joined  Mr.  Langham  and 
walked  off  by  his  side.  Even  Arthur  chuckled. 

"And  what  was  the  meeting  about?"  asked 
Mr.  Langham. 

"Oh,"  said  Mary,  "they  won't  be  serious — 
not  any  of  them — not  even  Arthur.  So  we  for- 
got what  the  meeting  was  for,  and  got  into  violent 
discussion  about — about  natural  history." 

"And  what  side  did  you  take?" 

"Oh,"  said  Mary,  "we  were  all  on  the  same 
side — really;  and  that  was  what  made  the  dis- 
cussion so  violent." 

"The  day,"  said  Langham,  "is  young.  I  feel 
ripe  for  an  adventure.  And  you?" 

"What  sort  of  an  adventure?" 

"I  thought  that  if  one — or  rather  it  two  climbed 
to  the  top  of  a  very  little  hill  and  sat  down  in 
the  sunshine  and  admired  the  view " 


Far  out  on  the  lake  they  could  see  Lee,  lolling 
in  the  stern  of  a  guide  boat.  Young  Renier  was 
at  the  oars.  But  the  boat  was  not  being  pro- 
pelled. It  was  merely  drifting. 

163 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  wonder,"  said  Langham,  and  he  watched 
her  face  stealthily,  "if  by  any  chance  those  two 
are  really  engaged  ?" 

Was  there  the  least  hardening  of  that  lovely, 
gentle  face,  the  least  fleeting  expression  of  that 
sort  of  panic  which  one  experiences  when  arriv- 
ing at  the  station  in  time  to  see  the  train  pull  out 
but  not  too  late  to  get  aboard  by  the  exercise  of 
swift  and  energetic  manoeuvres  ? 

"Don't  say  such  things!"  she  said  presently. 
"It's  like  jumping  out  from  behind  a  tree  and 
shouting,  'Boo!" 

Mr.  Langham  smiled  complacently  and  changed 
the  subject.  But  he  said  to  himself:  "That  Maud 
is  a  clever  girl!" 

"I  suppose,"  said  Mary  after  a  while,  "that 
this  is  the  last  really  peaceful  day  we'll  have  for 
a  long  time.  To-morrow  the  place  will  be  full  of 
strange,  critical  faces.  And  it  will  be  one  long 
wrestle  to  make  everything  go  smoothly  all  the 
time." 

She  sighed. 

"There  are  only  two  ways  to  success,"  said 
Langham.  "One  is  across  the  wrestling-mat,  and 
one  is  through  the  pasture  of  old  Bull  Luck.  But 
I'm  convinced  that  The  Inn  is  going  to  pay  very 
handsomely.  There  is  a  fortune  in  it." 

164 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"There  mightn't  be,"  said  Mary,  "if—"  and 
she  broke  into  a  peal  of  embarrassed  laughter. 

"If  what?" 

"I  was  thinking  of  that  dreadful  picture." 

"I  often  think  of  it,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  "and 
of  the  first  time  I  saw  it." 

Mary  gave  him  a  somewhat  shy  look. 

"Of  course  it  didn't  influence  you,"  she  said. 

"But  it  did.  And  that  day  I  forgot  to  eat 
any  lunch.  I  am  looking  forward,"  he  said,  "to 
warm  weather — I  enjoy  a  swim  as  much  as  any- 
body." 

"Why  is  it,"  said  Mary,  "that  a  girl  is  ashamed 
when  it  is  her  money  that  attracts  a  man,  and 
proud  when  it  is  her  face  ?  Both  are  equally 
fortuitous;  both  are  assets  in  a  way — but  of  the 
two,  it  is  the  money  alone  which  is  really  useful." 

"It  sounds  convincing  to  a  girl,"  mused  Mr. 
Langham,  "when  a  man  says  to  her:  'I  love  you 
because  of  your  beautiful  blue  eyes !'  But  it 
wouldn't  sound  in  the  least  convincing  if  he  said : 
'I  love  you  because  of  your  beautiful  green 
money ! '  I  don't  attempt  to  explain  this.  I  am 
merely  stating  what  appears  to  me  to  be  a  fact. 
But,  as  you  say,  money  is,  or  should  be,  an  asset 
of  attraction." 

"I  suppose  beauty  is  held  in  greater  esteem," 
165 


The  Seven  Darlings 

said  Mary,  "because  it  is  more  democratically 
bestowed.  Money  seems  to  beget  hatred  because 
it  isn't." 

"The  French  people,"  said  Langham,  "hated 
the  nobility  because  of  their  wealth  and  luxury. 
To-day  a  common  mechanic  has  more  real  lux- 
uries at  his  disposal  than  poor  Louis  XVI  had, 
but  he  hates  the  rich  people  who  have  more  than 
he  has — and  so  it  will  go  on  to  the  end  of  time." 

"Will  there  always  be  rich  people  and  poor 
people  ?" 

"There  will  always  be  rich  people,  but  some 
time  they  will  learn  to  spend  their  money  more 
beneficently,  and  then  there  won't  be  any  really 
poor  people.  If  the  attic  of  your  house  were  in- 
fected with  dirt  and  vermin  you  couldn't  sleep 
until  it  had  been  cleaned  and  disinfected.  So, 
some  day,  rich  men  will  feel  about  their  neighbors; 
cities  about  their  slums;  and  nations  about  other 
nations.  I  can  imagine  a  future  Uncle  Sam  say- 
ing to  a  future  John  Bull" — and  he  sunk  his 
voice  to  a  comically  confidential  whisper:  "!  'Say, 
old  man,  I  hear  you're  pressed  for  ready  cash; 
now't  just  so  happens  I'm  well  fixed  at  the  mo- 
ment, and — oh,  just  among  friends !  Bother  the 
interest !'  What  a  spectacle  this  world  is — it's  like 
the  old  English  schools  that  Dickens  wrote  out 

1 66 


The  Seven  Darlings 

of  existence — just  bullying  and  hazing  all  around  ! 
Why,  if  a  country  was  run  on  the  most  elementary 
principles  of  honesty  and  efficiency,  the  citizens 
of  that  country  would  never  have  occasion  to  say: 
'Our  taxes  are  almost  unbearable/  They  would 
be  nudging  each  other  in  the  streets  and  saying: 
'My,  that  was  a  big  dividend  we  got !'  3 

Mr.  Langham  only  stopped  because  he  was  out 
of  breath.  His  face  was  red  and  shining.  He 
mopped  his  brow  with  his  handkerchief. 

Mary  was  almost  perfectly  happy.  She  loved 
to  hear  Langham  run  on  and  on.  His  voice  was 
so  pleasant,  and  his  face  beamed  so  with  kind- 
ness. And  from  many  things  which  he  had  from 
time  to  time  let  slip  she  was  convinced  that  she 
needn't  be  an  old  maid  unless  she  wanted  to  be. 
And  so  to  climb  a  little  hill  with  him,  to  sit  in 
the  sun,  and  to  admire  the  view  was  really  an 
exciting  venture.  For  she  never  knew  what  he 
was  going  to  let  slip  next.  And  equally  exciting 
was  the  fact  that  if  that  slip  should  be  in  the 
nature  of  a  leading  question,  she  could  only  guess 
what  her  answer  would  be. 

When  a  man  is  offered  something  that  he  very 
much  wants — a  trifling  loan,  for  instance — his 
first  instinct  is  to  deny  the  need.  And  a  girl, 
when  the  man  she  wants  offers  himself,  usually  re- 

167 


The  Seven  Darlings 

fuses  at  the  first  time  of  asking.  And  some, 
especially  rich  in  girl  nature,  which  is  experience 
of  human  nature  and  somewhat  short  of  divine, 
will  persist  in  refusing  even  unto  the  twentieth 
and  thirtieth  time. 

Mary  Darling  was  in  a  deep  reverie.  From 
this,  his  eyes  twinkling  behind  their  thick  glasses, 
Mr.  Langham  roused  her  with  the  brisk  utterance 
of  one  of  his  favorite  quotations : 

'  'General    Blank's    compliments,' '     said    he, 
'  'and   he   reports   that   the   colored   troops   are 
turning  black  in  the  face.' ' 

Mary  smiled  her  friendliest  smile. 

"I  was  wondering,"  she  said,  "what  had  be- 
come of  Lee  and  Renier." 

"I  have  noted,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  "that  she 
always  calls  him  by  his  last  name,  sometimes 
with  the  prefix  you — 'You  Renier'  put  like  that. 
And  I  was  wondering  if  he  ever  turns  the  trick  on 
her." 

"Why  should  he?"  asked  Mary  innocently. 

"You  have  forgotten,"  said  he,  "that  her  last 
name  is  Darling."  His  eyes  twinkled  with  amaz- 
ing and  playful  boldness.  "You're  all  Darlings," 
he  exclaimed,  "and" — a  note  of  self-pity  in  his 
voice — "I'm  just  a  fat  old  stuff!" 

"That,"  said  Mary  primly,  "is  perfectly  cor- 
168 


The  Seven  Darlings 

rect,  but  for  three  trifling  errors — you're  not  fat, 
you're  not  old,  and  you're  not  a  stuff!" 

If  she  had  told  him  that  he  was  handsome  as 
Apollo  he  could  not  have  been  more  pleased. 

And  so  their  adventure  progressed  in  the  pleas- 
ant sunlight  that  warmed  the  top  of  the  little 
hill.  No  very  exciting  adventure,  you  say  ? 
And  of  a  shilly-shallying  and  even  snail-like 
motion  ? 

Oh,  you  can't  be  always  riding  to  rescues,  and 
falling  over  cliffs,  and  escaping  from  burning 
houses. 

At  that  moment,  by  the  purest  accident,  the 
tip  of  Mr.  Langham's  right  forefinger  just  brushed 
against  Mary's  sleeve.  And  there  went  through 
him  from  head  to  foot  a  great  thrill,  as  if  trumpets 
had  suddenly  sounded. 

"I  suppose,"  said  Mary,  after  a  little  while, 
"that  we  ought  to  be  going." 

"But  I'd  rather  sit  here  than  eat,"  said  Mr. 
Langham. 

"Honestly?     So  would  I." 

"Then,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  "without  exposing 
ourselves  to  any  other  danger  than  that  of  star- 
vation, I  propose  that  we  lose  ourselves — as 
other  people  do — in  short,  that  we  remain  here 
until  one  or  other  of  us  would  rather — eat." 

169 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Good  gracious,"  said  Mary,  "we  might  be 
here  a  week!" 

Mr.  Langham  rose  slowly  to  his  feet.  Far  off 
he  could  see  pale  smoke  flitting  upward  through 
the  tree-tops.  He  turned  and  looked  into  Miss 
Darling's  smiling,  upturned  face. 

"I'll  just  run  down  and  tell  Arthur  we're  not 
really  lost,"  he  said.  "But  I'll  make  him  promise 
not  to  look  for  us.  I'll  be  right  back — almost 
before  you  can  say  'Jack  Robinson.'  ' 

She  held  out  her  hands.  He  took  them  and 
helped  her  to  her  feet.  And  then  they  both 
laughed  aloud. 

"Thank  Heaven,"  said  Mary,  "that  whatever 
else  you  and  I  may  suffer  from,  it  isn't  from  in- 
sanity— or  slim  appetites  !  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
I'm  famished." 

"Thank  God  !"  said  Mr.  Langham;  "so  am  I." 

And  they  began  to  descend  the  hill.  For  to 
keep  men  and  women  and  adventurers  going,  the 
essential  thing  is  food.  And  there's  many  a 
promising,  romance  that  has  come  to  nothing  for 
want  of  a  loaf  of  bread  and  a  jug  of  wine. 


170 


XVIII 

IN  a  certain  part  of  the  Land  of  Cotton,  where 
they  grow  nothing  but  rice,  Colonel  Melville 
Meredith  stood  beside  the  charred  foundations  of 
a  house  and  nursed  his  chin  with  his  hand.  With 
the  exception  of  a  sword  which  the  King  of  Greece 
had  given  him,  all  those  possessions  which  he  had 
considered  of  value  had  gone  up  in  smoke  with  the 
house  of  his  ancestors.  The  family  portraits  were 
gone,  the  silver  Lamarie,  and  Lesage,  and  all  the 
Domingan  satinwood.  If  Colonel  Meredith  had 
been  an  older  man,  he  must  almost  have  wept. 
But  the  grip  upon  his  chin  was  not  of  one  mourn- 
ing. It  was  the  grip  of  consideration.  He  was 
wondering  what  sort  of  a  new  house  he  should 
build  upon  the  foundations  of  the  old. 

He  must,  of  course,  build  upon  the  old  site. 
There  were  other  good  sites  among  his  thousands 
of  acres,  but  none  which  was  so  well  planted. 
A  good  architect  could  copy  the  Taj  Mahal  for 
you.  But  the  Pemaque  oak  is  one  hundred  and 
seven  feet,  or  less,  in  circumference,  and  the  avenue 
of  oaks  leading  from  the  turnpike,  two  miles  away, 

171 


The  Seven  Darlings 

was  planted  in  1653.  There  were  also  divers 
jungles  of  rhododendrons,  laurel,  and  azalea  in 
the  river  garden  that  it  had  taken  no  less  than 
a  great-grandmother  to  plant. 

"It  can't  be  the  first  conflagration  in  the  fam- 
ily," he  thought.  "Everybody's  ancestors,  at 
one  time  or  another,  must  have  lost  by  fire  and 
built  again.  As  for  Pemaque — it  was  a  lovely 
old  house,  but  a  new  house  could  be  just  as  lovely, 
and  it  could  have  bathrooms  and  be  made  rat- 
proof.  And  I  wouldn't  mind  if  people  scratched 
the  floors." 

I  have  said  that  Colonel  Meredith  had  lost  all 
the  possessions  which  he  valued.  But  of  course 
the  land  remained,  the  trees,  the  duck  ponds,  the 
alligator  sloughs,  and  so  forth.  There  remained, 
also,  a  robust  youth,  crowded  with  experiences 
and  memories  of  wars  and  statesmen  and  of  de- 
lightful people  who  live  for  pleasure.  There  re- 
mained, also — least  valuable  of  all  to  a  man  of 
action  and  sentiment — a  perfectly  safe  income, 
derived  from  bonds,  of  nearly  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Colonel  Meredith 
was  by  all  odds  the  richest  man  in  that  part  of 
the  Land  of  Cotton,  where  they  grow  nothing 
but  rice. 

It  was  piping  hot  among  the  foundations  of 
172 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  old  house;  the  sticky,  ticky  season  had  de- 
scended upon  the  Carolina  seacoast.  The  snakes 
and  the  lizards  were  saying  among  themselves, 
"Now  this  is  really  something  like,"  and  were 
behaving  accordingly.  Every  few  minutes  a  new 
and  ambitious  generation  of  mosquitoes  was 
hatched.  The  magnolias  were  going  to  seed. 
Colonel  Meredith's  Gordon  setter,  a  determined 
expression  upon  his  face,  had  been  scratching  him- 
self with  almost  supercanine  speed  for  the  last 
twenty  minutes. 

Colonel  Meredith  scorned  ticks,  trod  with  in- 
difference upon  snakes,  and  was  not  poisoned  or 
even  pained  by  mosquitoes,  but  he  had  travelled 
all  over  the  world  and  was  not  averse  to  being 
cooler  and  more  comfortable. 

"We've  got  the  grandest  climate  in  the  world," 
he  thought  loyally,  "for  eight  months  in  the  year 
— but  when  it  comes  to  summer  give  me  Vera 
Cruz,  Singapore,  or  even  hell.  I'll  build  a  home 
for  autumn,  winter,  and  spring,  but  when  it  gets 
to  be  summer,  I'll  go  away  and  shoot  polar  bears." 

He  whistled  his  dog  and  walked  thoughtfully 
to  where  his  automobile  was  waiting  in  the  shade. 
His  driver,  an  Irish  boy  from  New  York,  was  in 
a  state  of  wilt. 

"I  have  determined,"  said  Colonel  Meredith, 
173 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"not  to  begin  building  until  cool  weather.  We 
shall  go  North  to-night.  I  hope  the  thought  will 
refresh  you.  Now  we  will  go  back  to  Mr.  Jon- 
stone's.  Do  you  feel  able  to  drive,  or  shall  I  ?" 

It  was  typical  of  the  region  that  the  Mr.  Jon- 
stone  with  whom  Meredith  was  stopping  should 
own  the  best  bed  of  mint  south  of  Washing- 
ton, and  could  make  the  best  mint-juleps.  The 
mint-bed  was  about  all  he  did  own.  Everything 
else  was  heavily  mortgaged.  Everything,  that 
is,  except  the  family  silver  and  jewels.  These 
Jonstone's  grandmother  had  buried  when  Sher- 
man came  marching  through,  and  had  almost 
immediately  forgotten  where  she  had  buried  them. 
Jonstone  employed  one  trustworthy  negro  whose 
year-around  business  was  to  dig  for  the  treasure. 
There  existed  a  list  of  the  objects  buried,  which 
was  enough  to  make  even  a  rich  man's  palm  itch. 

"Nothing  to-day,"  said  Jonstone  as  his  guest 
drove  up.  "And  it's  about  time  for  a  julep." 

"I'm  going  North  to-night,"  said  Meredith, 
"and  you're  going  with  me." 

They  were  cousins,  second  or  third,  of  about 
the  same  age.  They  even  looked  alike,  but  whereas 
Meredith  had  travelled  all  over  the  world,  Jon- 
stone had  never  been  south  of  Savannah  or  north 
of  Washington. 

174 


The  Seven  Darlings 

He  began  with  an  ivory  toddy-stick  to  convert 
sugar  and  Bourbon  into  sirup. 

"How's  that,  Mel?"  he  asked.     "And  why?" 

"Between  us  two,  Bob,"  said  Meredith,  "this 
is  one  hell  of  a  climate  in  summer.  The  brighter 
we  are  the  quicker  we'll  get  out  of  it." 

"I'd  like  to  go  you  on  that,  but  aside  from  the 
family  silver  I  haven't  a  penny  in  the  world." 

"Bob,  I'm  sick  of  offering  to  lend  you  money. 
I'm  sick  of  offering  to  give  you  money.  There's 
only  one  chance  left." 

Jonstone  made  a  gentle  clashing  sound  with 
fine  ice. 

"As  you  know,  my  family  silver  has  all  gone 
up  in  smoke.  Now  yours  hasn't.  Suppose  you 
sell  me  yours.  What's  it  worth  ?" 

"With  or  without  the  diamonds  ?" 

"If  I  should  ever  marry,  it  would  be  advisable 
to  have  the  diamonds." 

"Well,"  said  Jonstone,  beginning  to  turn  over 
a  bundle  of  straws,  with  the  object  of  selecting 
four  which  should  be  flawless,  "I  don't  want  to 
stick  you.  We  have  a  complete  list  of  the  pieces, 
with  their  weights  and  dates.  Some  of  the  New 
York  dealers  could  tell  us  what  the  collection 
would  be  worth  in  the  open  market.  Double  that 
sum  in  the  name  of  sentiment,  and  I'll  go  you." 

175 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  must  have  a  free  hand  to  hunt  for  the  stuff 
in  my  own  way —  It's  perfection — you  never, 
never  made  a  better  one — now,  how  about  the 
diamonds  ?" 

"I  have  the  weights.  And  you  know  the  Jon- 
stones  were  always  particular  about  water." 

"That's  why  they  are  all  dead  but  you.  Then 
you'll  come  ? " 

Bob  Jonstone  nodded. 

"You'll  have  to  lend  me  a  suit  of  clothes — 
but,  look  here,  Mel:  suppose  the  silver  and  stuff 
has  been  lifted — doesn't  exist  any  more?  Wouldn't 
I,  in  selling  it  to  you,  be  guilty  of  sharp  prac- 
tice ?" 

"Our  great  -  great  -  grandfather,  the  Signer, 
doesn't  exist  any  more,  Bob.  That  silver  is  some- 
where— in  some  form  or  other.  I  pay  for  it,  and 
it's  mine.  Does  it  matter  if  I  never  see  it  or 
handle  it  ?  I  shall  always  be  able  to  allude  to  it 
— isn't  that  enough  ?  As  for  you,  you'll  be  able 
to  pay  all  your  mortgages,  to  fix  the  front  door 
so's  it  won't  have  to  be  kept  shut  with  a  keg  of 
nails,  and  to  spend  what  is  necessary  on  your 
fields." 

"Of  course,"  said  Jonstone,  who  had  finished 
his  julep.  "It  afflicts  me  to  part  with  what  has 
been  in  the  family  so  long." 

176 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"But  you  ought  to  be  afflicted." 

"Why?"    * 

"  Didn't  you  vote  for  Wilson  ? " 

Jonstone  nodded  solemnly. 

"Come,  then,"  said  Meredith,  as  if  he  were 
pardoning  an  erring  child;  "there's  just  time  for 
one  julep  and  to  pack  up  our  things.  You'll  just 
love  New  York.  And  when  we  get  there  we'll 
make  up  our  minds  whether  we'll  go  to  Newport 
or  Bar  Harbor.  Bob,  did  it  ever  occur  to  you 
that  you  and  I  ought  to  get  married  ?  That  looks 
as  if  it  was  going  to  be  better  than  the  other, 
though  darker —  What's  the  use  of  having  an- 
cestors if  you're  not  going  to  be  one  ? " 

"Show  me  a  girl  as  handsome  as  Sully's  por- 
trait of  Great-grandmother  Pringle,  and  I'll  take 
notice." 

"Why,  every  other  girl  in  a  Broadway  chorus 
has  got  the  old  lady  skinned  to  death,  Bob !" 

"You  may  be  worldly-wiser  than  me,  Mel,  but 
you've  lost  your  reverence.  It's  always  been 
agreed  in  the  family  that  Great-grandmother 
Pringle  was  the  most  beautiful  woman  in  the 
South.  And  when  a  man  says  'the  South,'  and 
refers  at  the  same  time  to  female  charms,  he  has 
as  good  as  said  the  whole  world." 

"Bob,  among  ourselves,  do  you  really  think 
177 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Jefferson  Davis  was  a  greater  man  than  Abraham 
Lincoln?" 

"Ssssh!"  said  Jonstone. 

"Do  you  really  think  the  Southern  armies 
wiped  up  the  map  with  the  Northern  armies 
every  time  they  met  ?  And  do  you  really  think 
that  wooden-faced  doll  that  Sully  painted  has 
no  equal  for  beauty  north  of  the  Mason  and 
Dixon  line  ?  What  you  need  is  travel  and  expe- 
rience." 

"What's  the  matter  with  you  getting  married  ? 
— My  God,  don't  spill  that,  Mel !" 

"There's  nothing  the  matter  with  it.  And 
I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do:  I  will  if  you  will." 

"They  ought  to  be  sisters,  seeing  as  how  you 
and  I  have  always  been  like  brothers  and  voted 
the  Democratic  ticket  and  fought  chickens." 

"And  fed  the  same  ticks  and  mosquitoes." 

"We'll  have  a  double  wedding.  We'll  each  be 
the  other's  best  man,  and  they'll  each  be  the 
other's  best  girl." 

"No — no;  they  are  each  to  be  our  best  girls." 

"What  I  mean  is " 

"I  know  what  you  mean,  but  you've  made  this 
julep  too  strong." 

"That's  one  thing  they  can't  do  in  the  North." 

"What's  that?" 

178 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Make  a  julep." 

Meredith  considered  this  at  some  length.  "No, 
Bob,"  he  said  at  length,  "they  can't.  But  I  once 
met  a  statesman  from  Maine  who  made  a  thing 
that  looked  like  a  julep,  tasted  like  a  julep,  and 
that — I'd  say  it  if  it  was  my  dying  statement — 
had  the  same  effect." 

"She  must  be  better-looking  than  Great-grand- 
mother Pringle,"  said  Jonstone.  "She  must  be 
able  to  make  a  julep,  and  she  must  have  a  sister 
just  like  her.  Can  you  lend  me  a  suit  of  clothes 
till  we  get  to  New  York?" 

"I  can  lend  you  anything  from  a  yachting  suit 
to  a  Bulgarian  uniform." 

"And  you're  sure  I'm  not  imposing  on  you  in 
the  matter  of  the  silver.?" 

"Sure.     I  just  want  to  know  it's  mine." 

In  the  morning,  soon  after  this  precious  pair 
had  breakfasted,  a  boy  went  through  the  train 
with  newspapers  and  magazines.  He  proclaimed 
in  the  sweetest  Virginian  voice  that  his  magazines 
were  just  out,  but  a  copy  of  The  Four  Seasons 
which  Colonel  Meredith  bought  proved  not  only 
to  be  of  an  ancient  date  but  to  have  had  coffee 
spilled  upon  it. 

At  the  moment  when  this  discovery  was  made, 
the  youthful  paper-monger  had  just  swung  from 

179 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  crawling  train  to  the  platform  of  a  way 
station,  so  there  was  no  redress.  The  cousins 
agreed,  laughing,  that  if  a  Yankee  had  played 
them  such  a  trick  they  would  have  wished  to  cut 
his  heart  out,  but  that,  turned  upon  them  by  a 
fellow  countryman,  it  was  merely  a  proof  of 
smartness  and  push. 

"Between  you  and  me,  Bob,"  said  Colonel 
Meredith,  "an  accurate  count  of  our  Southern 
population  would  proclaim  a  villain  or  two  here 
and  there.  I  was  brought  up  to  believe  that  to 
be  born  in  a  certain  region  was  all  that  was 
necessary.  But  that's  not  so.  I  tell  you  this  be- 
cause I  am  afraid  that  when  you  are  meeting 
people  in  New  York  and  having  a  good  time  you 
will  be  wanting  to  lay  down  the  law,  to  wit,  that 
one  Southerner  can  whip  five  Yankees.  Don't 
do  it.  I  will  tell  you  a  horrid  truth.  I  was  once 
whipped  by  a  small-sized  Frenchman  within  an 
inch  of  my  life.  He  had  studied  le  boxe  under 
Carpentier  and  I  hadn't.  Did  you  ever  study 
le  boxe?  No  ?  An  Anglo-Saxon  imagines  that 
he  was  born  boxing.  And  it  takes  a  licking  by  a 
man  of  Latin  blood  to  prove  to  him  that  he  wasn't. 
Just  because  people  make  funny  noises  and  mon- 
key cries  when  they  fight  doesn't  prove  that  they 
are  afraid.  There  is  nothing  so  ridiculous  as  a 

1 80 


The  Seven  Darlings 

baboon  going  into  action  and  nothing  more  ter- 
rible when  he  gets  there." 

"The  more  you  travel,  Mel,  the  more  you 
show  a  deplorable  tendency  to  foul  your  own 
nest." 

"I  run  down  the  South?  I  like  that!  But, 
my  dear  Bob,  there  is  only  one  chosen  people. 
And  it  isn't  us."  Here  he  made  a  significant 
gesture  with  his  hands,  turning  the  palms  up, 
and  they  both  laughed.  "A  Jew,"  he  went  on, 
"is  what  he  is  because  he  is  a  Jew.  His  good 
points  and  his  bad  are  racial.  But  between  two 
men  of  our  race  there  is  no  material  resemblance. 
One  is  mean,  the  other  generous;  one  broad,  one 
narrow;  one  brave,  the  other  not.  Do  you  know 
why  hornless  cows  give  less  milk  than  horned 
cows  ?  Because  there  are  fewer  of  them.  Do  you 
know  why  there  are  more  honest  men  in  the 
North,  and  pretty  girls,  than  there  are  in  the 
South  ?  Simply  because  there  are  more  men  and 
more  girls.  It  also  follows  that  there  are  more 
dishonest  men  and  ugly  girls;  more  of  everything, 
in  fact." 

He  was  slowly  turning  over  the  pages  of  The 
Four  Seasons,  looking  always,  with  Pemaque  in 
mind,  at  pictures  of  country  houses.  Suddenly 
he  closed  the  magazine,  looked  pensively  out  of 

181 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  window,  and  began  to  whistle  with  piercing 
sweetness.  He  once  more  opened  the  magazine, 
but  this  time  with  great  caution  as  if  he  was 
half  afraid  that  something  disagreeable  would 
jump  out  at  him.  Nothing  did,  however.  He 
folded  the  magazine  back  upon  itself  and  held 
it  close  to  his  eyes,  then  far  off,  then  at  mid-dis- 
tance. 

"What's  the  matter  with  you?"  said  Bob 
Jonstone. 

"Nothing,"  said  Meredith,  "only  I'm  thinking 
there  ought  to  be  six  of  us  instead  of  only  two. 
Look  at  that  page  and  tell  me  where  we're  going 
to  spend  the  summer." 

Jonstone  took  the  magazine  and  saw  the  six 
Darling  sisters  sitting  on  the  float  in  their  bathing- 
dresses.  Presently  he  smiled  and  said:  "You've 
just  won  an  argument,  Mel." 

"How's  that?" 

"Why,  in  the  South  there  wouldn't  be  so 
many  of  them — but  maybe  they  are  not  always 
there.  Maybe  they  were  only  there  last  summer." 

"Well,  we  can  find  out  where  they've  gone, 
can't  we  ?" 

"It  doesn't  seem  in  strict  good  breeding  to 
pursue  ladies  one  doesn't  know." 

"Why,  bless  you,  I  chased  all  over  Europe 
182 


The  Seven  Darlings 

after  a  face  I  saw  in  The  Sketch,  only  to  find  out 
that  she  was  willing  to  marry  anybody  with 
money  and  had  a  voice  like  a  guinea-hen.  And 
after  I'd  found  that  out,  she  chased  me  all  over 
Europe  and  as  far  East  as  Cairo." 

"I've  never  been  chased  by  a  woman,"  said 
Jonstone  a  little  wistfully.  "What  happened  in 
the  end?" 

"I  left  Cairo  between  two  days,  fled  away  into 
the  desert  with  some  people  just  stepped  out  of 
the  Bible,  and  never  came  back." 

"Suppose  she  hadn't  been  willing  to  marry 
you  and  had  had  a  voice  like  a  dove?" 

"Don't  suppose.    We  are  on  a  new  quest." 

"What  is  the  Adirondacks  ?" 

"We  wouldn't  think  much  of  it  in  the  South. 
It's  a  place  where  you  are  always  cool  and  clean 
and  can  drink  the  nearest  water.  The  trout 
don't  eat  mud  and  haven't  got  long  white  whiskers, 
and  the  deer  are  bigger  than  dogs,  and  you  don't 
go  to  sleep  at  night.  The  night  just  comes  and 
puts  you  to  sleep.  It's  just  like  Bar  Harbor — 
only  a  little  more  so  in  some  ways  and  a  little 
less  so  in  others." 

Jonstone  spread  The  Four  Seasons  wide  open 
upon  his  knees. 

"Let's  agree  right  now,"  he  said,  "which  each 
181 


The  Seven  Darlings 

of  us  thinks  is  the  prettiest.  It  would  be  dreadful 
after  travelling  so  far  if  we  were  both  to  pick  on 
the  same  one." 

"We  would  have  to  fight  a  duel,"  said  Mere- 
dith, "with  swords,  and  considering  that  you 
could  never  even  sharpen  a  pencil  without  cut- 
ting yourself " 

"A  boy  wouldn't  come  along,"  said  Jonstone, 
"and  sell  us  a  copy  of  a  magazine  months  old  if 
fate  hadn't  meant  us  to  see  this  picture.  I  think 
I  like  the  third  one  from  the  end." 

"I  think  I  like  the  three  that  look  just  alike." 

"That  is  because  you  have  travelled  in  Turkey. 
You  never  seem  to  remember  that  you  are  a 
Christian  gentleman." 


184' 


XIX 

WHEN  they  found  out  how  much  the  buried 
silver  was  worth — the  inventory  was  very 
thorough  in  the  matter  of  description,  dates,  and 
weights — Mr.  Bob  Jonstone  burst  out  laughing. 
But  Colonel  Meredith,  although  determined  to 
stand  by  his  bargain  whatever  the  cash  cost, 
looked  like  a  man  who  has  just  missed  the  last 
train. 

"I  haven't  got  that  much  money  loose,  Bob," 
he  said,  "but  I  can  raise  it  in  a  few  days  and  then 
we'll  execute  a  bill  of  sale.  Meanwhile,  allow  me 
to  congratulate  you  on  your  accession  to  the 
aristocracy." 

"Aristocracy  ?  It's  blood  that  counts — not 
money." 

"According  to  the  old  democracy,  yes.  Ac- 
cording to  the  new,  distinguished  people  pay  an 
income  tax  and  common  people  don't.  And  you, 
a  moment  ago,  before  the  valuation  was  com- 
pleted, were  a  very  common  fellow,  indeed." 

"Mel,  I  had  no  idea  that  old  junk  was  worth 
so  much. " 

185 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"You  hadn't?  Well,  it's  worth  more.  I'm 
getting  a  bargain.  Thank  the  Lord  you're  a 
gentleman,  so  there's  no  danger  of  your  backing 
out." 

Jonstone  seized  his  cousin's  hand  and  pressed 
it  affectionately. 

"Mel,"  he  said,  "can  you  afford  to  do  this 
thing  ?  God  knows  the  money  will  make  all  the 
difference  in  the  world  to  me !  But  in  taking  it  I 
don't  feel  any  too  noble." 

"It  was  always  ridiculous  for  me  to  be  rich 
and  for  you  to  be  poor.  That's  done  with.  I'm 
still  rich,  thank  God ! — and  you're  well-to-do. 
You  can  travel  if  you  like,  breed  horses,  install 
plumbing,  burn  coal,  and  marry." 

"If  I  was  sure  that  the  silver  would  ever  be 
turned  up,  I  wouldn't  feel  so  sheepish." 

"As  long  as  you  don't  look  sheepish  or  act 
sheepish — suppose  that  now,  after  a  slight  for- 
tification, we  visit  a  tailor.  It  is  necessary  for 
you  to  dress  according  to  your  station  in  life." 

Their  first  day  in  New  York  was  immensely 
amusing  to  both  of  them.  Meredith  was  com- 
ing back  to  it  after  a  long  absence;  Jonstone  was 
seeing  it  for  the  first  time,  and  for  the  first  time 
his  pockets  were  full  of  money  that  he  did  not  owe. 
Now,  New  York  is  one  of  the  finest  summer  re~ 

1 86 


The  Seven  Darlings 

sorts  in  the  world.  Do  not  pity  the  poor  business 
man  who  sends  his  family  to  the  mountains  for 
the  hot  weather,  for  while  they  are  burned  by 
the  sun  and  fed  an  interminable  succession  of 
blueberry  pies,  he  basks  in  the  cool  of  electric 
fans  and  dines  on  the  fat  of  the  land.  His  busi- 
ness may  worry  him,  but  there  is  no  earthly 
use  in  his  attending  to  it.  That  is  done  for  him. 
He  can  skip  away  when  he  pleases  for  an  after- 
noon's golf  or  tennis.  Somebody's  motor  is  al- 
ways going  somewhere  where  there  is  pleasure  to 
be  found  and  laughter.  The  lights  of  Luna  Park 
are  brighter  than  the  Bar  Harbor  stars,  and  the 
ocean  which  pounds  upon  Long  Beach  is  just  as 
salt  as  that  which  thunders  against  Great  Head — 
and  about  twice  as  warm.  For  pure  torture  give 
me  a  swim  anywhere  north  of  Cape  Cod.  Merely 
to  step  into  such  water  is  like  having  one's  foot 
bitten  off  by  a  shark. 

It  did  not  take  Jonstone  long  to  acknowledge 
that  New  York  is  even  bigger  than  Richmond, 
Virginia,  and  even  livelier.  The  discovery  of  a 
superannuated  mosquito  in  his  bathroom  had 
made  him  feel  at  home,  and  the  fact  that  the  head 
bartender  in  the  hotel,  though  a  native  of  Ire- 
land, fashioned  a  delicious  julep. 

But  his  equanimity  came  very  near  to  being 
187 


The  Seven  Darlings 

upset  in  the  subway.  He  felt  a  hand  slipping 
into  his  pocket  and  caught  it  by  the  wrist.  He 
had  a  grip  like  looped  wire  twisted  with  pinchers. 
The  would-be  thief  uttered  a  startled  shriek  and 
was  presently  turned  over  to  a  policeman. 

All  the  way  to  the  station-house  Mr.  Jonstone 
talked  excitedly  and  triumphantly  to  his  cousin. 

"Yes,  sir,"  he  said,  "you  had  me  groggy  with 
your  high  buildings  and  your  Aladdin-cave  stores 
and  your  taxicabs  and  park  systems.  But  by 
the  Everlasting,  sir,  this  would  never  have  hap- 
pened to  me  south  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line. 
No,  sir;  we  may  be  short  on  show  but  we're  long 
on  honesty  down  there.  I  don't  even  have  to 
lock  my  door  at  night." 

"That's  because  the  lock's  broken  and  you've 
always  kept  it  shut  with  a  keg  of  nails.  There 
are  more  pickpockets  in  New  York  than  in 
Charleston,  but  only  because  there  are  more 
pockets  to  pick." 

"I  don't  get  you,"  said  Jonstone  stiffly.  A 
little  later  he  did. 

The  culprit  was  asked  his  name  by  a  formidable 
desk  sergeant. 

"Stephen  Breckenridge." 

Bob  Jonstone  gasped. 

"Where  do  you  come  from?" 
1 88 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Lexington,  Kentucky." 

Colonel  Meredith  let  forth  a  howl  of  laughter. 
And  after  he  had  been  frowned  into  decorum  by 
the  sergeant,  he  continued  for  a  long  time  to  look 
as  if  he  was  going  to  burst. 

For  some  hours  Mr.  Jonstone  was  moody  and 
unamused.  Then  suddenly  he  broke  into  a 
winning  smile. 

"Mel,"  he  said,  "I  wouldn't  have  minded  so 
much  if  he  had  been  smart  enough  to  get  my 
money.  It  was  bad  finding  out  that  he  was  a 
compatriot  of  ours,  but  much  more  to  realize 
that  he  was  a  fool." 


189 


XX 

MR.  LANGHAM  was  consulted  about  every- 
thing. And  it  was  to  him  that  Maud 
Darling  took  Meredith's  letter  asking  for  accom- 
modations. ' 

"We've  only  two  rooms  left,"  she  said,  "and 
such  nice  people  have  come,  or  are  coming,  that 
it  would  be  an  awful  pity  if  we  had  the  bad  luck 
to  fill  up  with  two  men  that  weren't  nice.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  a  Colonel  Meredith  ?" 

"Is  that  his  letter  ?     May  I  look  ?" 

Mr.  Langham  read  the  letter  through  very 
carefully.  Then  he  said,  looking  at  her  over  the 
tops  of  his  thick  glasses: 

"I  don't  know  if  you  know  it,  but  I  have  made 
quite  a  study  of  handwritings.  The  writer  of 
this  letter  is  a  gentleman — a  Southern  gentleman, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken.  Accepting  this  premise, 
we  may  assume  that  his  friend  Mr.  Robert  Mid- 
dleton  Jonstone  is  also  a  Southern  gentleman. 
Middleton,  in  fact,  is  pure  South  Carolinian." 

"  But  if  they  are  from  South  Carolina,  wouldn't 
190 


The  Seven  Darlings 

our  terms  stagger  them  ?  I've  always  understood 
that  Southern  gentlemen  lost  all  their  money  in 
the  war." 

"Nevertheless,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  "this  is 
the  writing  of  a  rich  man." 

"How  can  you  know  that  ?" 

"I  tell  you  that  I  have  made  a  study  of  hand- 
writing. It  is  also  the  writing  of  a  horse-loving, 
war-loving,  much-travelled  man — in  the  late 
twenties." 

"You  will  tell  me  next  that  he  is  about  five 
feet  ten  inches  tall,  has  blue  eyes,  and  is  handsome 
as  an  angel." 

"You  take  the  words  out  of  my  mouth,  Miss 
Maud." 

"Tell  me  more."     She  was  laughing  now. 

"He  is  very  handsome,  but  not  as  angels  are 
— his  eyes  are  too  bold  and  roving.  If  he  wasn't 
a  good  man  he  would  be  a  very  bad  man.  There 
was  a  time,  even,  when  strong  drink  appealed  to 
him.  He  is  quixotically  brave  and  generous. 
And  I  should  by  all  means  advise  you  to  let  him 
have  his  accommodations." 

"I  can  never  tell  when  you  are  joking." 

"I  was  never  more  serious  in  my  life.  Shall  I 
tell  you  something  else  that  I  have  deduced  ? " 

"Please." 

191 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Well,  then,  he  isn't  married,  Miss  Maud,  and 
he  is  a  great  catch  !" 

Miss  Maud  blushed  a  trifle. 

"I  don't  know  if  you  know  it,"  she  said,  "but 
I  have  made  a  profound  study  of  palmistry.  Will 
you  lend  me  your  hand  a  moment?" 

"Very  willingly.  And  I  don't  care  if  some  one 
were  to  see  us." 

She  studied  his  palm  with  great  sternness. 

"I  read  here,"  she  said,  "with  regret,  that  you 
are  an  outrageous  flirt.  It  seems  also  that  you 
are  something  of  a  fraud." 

"One  more  calumny,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Langham, 
"and  I  withdraw  my  hand  with  a  gesture  of 
supreme  indignation." 

But  she  held  him  very  tightly  by  the  fingers. 

"And  this  little  line,"  she  cried,  "tells  me  that 
you  have  known  Colonel  Meredith  intimately  for 
years  and  that  you  never  studied  handwriting  in 
all  your  born  days." 

Mr.  Langham  began  to  chuckle  all  over. 

"The  next  time,"  he  said,  "that  people  tell  me 
you  are  easily  imposed  on,  I  shall  deny  it." 

"You  do  know  him  ?" 

He  blinked  and  nodded  like  a  wise  owl. 

"Shall  I  write  or  telegraph  ?" 

"You  will  use  your  own  judgment.'* 
192 


"I  read  here,"  she  said,  "with  regret,  that  you  are  an 
outrageous  flirt" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

So  she  did  both.  She  wrote  out  a  telegram 
and  sent  it  to  Carrytown  in  the  Streak.  And  she 
tried  to  picture  in  her  mind  a  young  man  who 
should  look  like  an  angel  if  his  eyes  weren't  too 
bold  and  roving. 

Her  sisters  and  her  brother  all  proclaimed  that 
Maud  was  a  really  sensible  person.  But  none  of 
them  knew  how  really  sensible  she  was. 

She  was,  for  instance,  more  interested  in  Colonel 
Meredith  than  in  his  cousin  Mr.  Jonstone,  and 
for  the  simple  reason  that  she  knew  the  one  to  be 
rich  and  handsome  and  knew  nothing  whatever 
about  the  other. 


193 


XXI 

MR.  LANGHAM  was  at  the  float  to  welcome 
the  two  Carolinians. 

"You  have,"  he  complimented  Colonel  Mere- 
dith, "once  more  proved  the  ability  to  land  on 
your  feet  in  a  soft  spot.  You  will  be  more  com- 
fortable here,  better  fed,  better  laundered  than 
anywhere  else  in  the  world." 

As  they  strolled  from  the  float  to  the  office, 
Mr.  Jonstone  looked  about  him  a  little  uneasily. 
Not  one  of  the  beautiful  girls  who  had  looked 
into  his  eyes  from  the  page  of  The  Four  Seasons 
was  in  sight,  or,  indeed,  any  girl,  woman,  or  female 
of  any  sort  whatever.  He  had  led  himself  to 
expect  a  resort  crowded  with  rustling  and  starchy 
boarders.  He  found  himself,  instead,  in  a  pri- 
meval pine  forest  in  which  were  sheltered  many 
low,  austere  buildings  of  logs,  above  whose  great 
chimneys  stood  vertical  columns  of  pale  smoke. 
It  was  not  yet  dusk,  but  the  air  among  the  long 
shadows  had  an  icy  quality  and  was  heavily 
charged  with  the  odor  of  balsam.  It  was  difficult 
to  believe  the  season  summer,  and  Mr.  Jonstone 

194 


The  Seven  Darlings 

was  reminded  of  December  evenings  in  the  Caro- 
linas. 

"This  is  the  office,"  said  Mr.  Langham,  and  he 
ushered  them  into  the  presence  of  a  bright  birch 
fire  and  Maud  Darling.  Each  of  the  Carolinians 
drew  a  quick  breath  and  bowed  as  if  before 
royalty.  Mr.  Langham  presented  them  to  Miss 
Darling.  She  begged  them  to  write  their  names 
in  the  guest  book  and  to  warm  themselves  at  the 
fire. 

"And  then,"  said  Sam  Langham,  "I'll  shake 
them  up  a  cocktail  and  show  them  their  house." 

"Are  we  to  have  a  whole  house  to  ourselves  ?" 
asked  Colonel  Meredith.  He  had  not  yet  taken 
his  eyes  from  Maud  Darling's  face. 

"It's  only  two  rooms:  bath,  parlor,  and  pi- 
azza," she  explained. 

"That  last?"  asked  Mr.  Jonstone. 

"It's  the  same  thing  as  a  'poach,'"  explained 
Mr.  Langham  with  a  sly  twinkle  in  his  eyes. 

"It's  to  sit  on  and  enjoy  the  view  from,"  added 
Maud. 

"But  I  don't  want  to  admire  the  view,"  com- 
plained Colonel  Meredith.  "I  want  to  lounge 
about  the  office.  It's  the  prerogative  of  every 
American  citizen  to  lounge  about  the  office  of  his 
hotel." 

I9S 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Colonel   Meredith   had  yet   to   take   his   eyes 
from   Maud    Darling's   face.     And   it   was   with 
protest  written  all  over  it  that  he  at  length  fol- 
lowed his  cousin  and  Mr.  Langham  into  the  open 
1  air. 

The  three  were  presently  sampling  a  cocktail 
of  the  latter's  shaking  in  the  latter's  snug  little 
house,  and  speech  was  loosened  in  their  mouths. 

"Darling,  pere"  explained  Sam  Langham, 
"went  broke.  He  used  to  run  this  place  as  it  is 
run  now,  with  this  difference:  that  in  the  old 
days  he  put  up  the  money,  while  now  it  is  the 
guests  who  pay.  Two  years  ago  the  Miss  Darling 
you  just  met  was  one  of  the  greatest  heiresses  in 
America;  now  she  keeps  books  and  makes  out 
bills." 

"And  are  there  truly  five  others  equally  lovely?" 
asked  Colonel  Meredith. 

Some  people  think  that  the  oldest  of  the  six 
is  also  the  loveliest,"  said  Sam  Langham,  loyal 
to  the  choice  of  his  own  heart.  "  But  they  are  all 
Very  lovely." 

To  the  Carolinians,  warmed  by  Langham's 
cocktail,  it  seemed  pitiful  that  six  beautiful  girls 
who  had  had  so  much  should  now  have  so  little. 
And  with  a  little  encouragement  they  would  have 
been  moved  to  the  expression  of  exaggerated 

196 


The  Seven  Darlings 

sentiments.  It  was  Maud,  however,  and  not  the 
others,  who  had  aroused  these  feelings  in  their 
breasts.  The  desire  to  benefit  her  by  some  secret 
action — and  then  to  be  found  out — was  very 
strong  in  them  both. 

Langham  left  them  after  a  time  and  they  began 
to  dress  for  dinner.  Usually  they  had  a  great 
deal  to  say  to  each  other;  often  they  disputed  and 
were  gorgeously  insolent  to  each  other  about  the 
most  trifling  things,  but  on  the  present  occasion 
their  one  desire  was  to  dress  as  rapidly  as  possi- 
ble and  to  visit  the  office  upon  some  pretext  or 
other. 

When  Colonel  Meredith  from  the  engulfment 
of  a  starched  shirt  announced  that  he  had  several 
letters  to  write  and  wondered  where  one  could 
buy  postage-stamps,  it  afforded  Bob  Jonstone 
malicious  satisfaction  to  inform  him  that  the 
"little  drawer  in  their  writing-table  contained 
not  only  plenty  of  twos  but  fives  and  a  strip  of 
special  deliveries." 

"All  I  have  to  think  about,"  said  he,  "is  my 
laundry.  I  suppose  they  can  tell '  me  at  the 
office." 

" They?"  exclaimed  Colonel  Meredith. 

As  he  spoke  the  collar  button  sprang  like  a 
slippery  cherry-stone  from  between  his  thumb 

197 


The  Seven  Darlings 

and  forefinger,  fell  in  the  exact  middle  of  the  room 
in  a  perfectly  bare  place,  and  disappeared.  Up 
to  this  moment  the  cousins  had  remained  on  even 
terms  in  the  race  to  be  dressed  first.  But  now 
Mr.  Jonstone  gained  and,  before  the  collar  but- 
ton was  found,  had  given  a  parting  "slick"  to 
his  hair  and  gone  out. 

It  was  now  dark,  and  the  woodland  streets  of 
The  Camp  were  lighted  by  lanterns.  Windows 
were  bright-yellow  rectangles.  A  wind  had  risen 
and  the  lake  could  be  heard  slapping  against  the 
rocky  shore. 

Maud  Darling  had  left  the  office  long  enough 
to  change  from  tailor-made  tweeds  to  the  simplest 
white  muslin.  She  was  adding  up  a  column  in  a 
fat  book.  She  looked  golden  in  the  firelight  and 
the  lamplight,  and  resembled  some  heavenly  be- 
ing but  for  the  fact  that,  for  the  moment,  she 
was  puzzled  to  discover  the  sum  of  seven  and 
five  and  was  biting  the  end  of  her  pencil.  The 
divine  muse  of  Inspiration  lives  in  the  "other" 
ends  of  pens  and  pencils.  The  world  owes  many 
of  its  masterpieces  of  literature  and  invention  to 
reflective  nibbling  at  these  instruments,  and  if 
I  were  a  teacher  I  should  think  twice  before  I 
told  my  pupils  to  take  their  pencils  out  of  their 
mouths. 

198 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Mr.  Jonstone  knocked  on  the  open  door  of  the 
office. 

"This  is  the  office,"  said  Miss  Maud  Darling; 
"you  don't  have  to  knock.  Is  anything  not 
right?" 

"Everything  is  absolutely  perfect,"  bowed  Mr. 
Jonstone.  "But  you  are  busy.  I  could  come 
again.  I  only  wanted  to  ask  about  sending  some 
things  to  a  laundry." 

"You're  not  supposed  to  think  about  that,'* 
said  Maud.  "There  is  a  clothes-bag  in  the  big 
closet  in  your  bedroom  and  my  sister  Eve  does  the 
rest." 

"Oh,  but  I  couldn't  allow " 

"Not  with  her  own  hands,  of  course;  she 
merely  oversees  the  laundry  and  keeps  it  up  to 
the  mark.  But  if  you  like  your  things  to  be 
done  in  any  special  way  you  must  see  her  and 
explain." 

"In  my  home,"  said  Jonstone,  "my  old  mammy 
does  all  the  washing  and  most  everything  else, 
and  I  wouldn't  dare  to  find  fault.  She  would  fol- 
low me  up-stairs  and  down  scolding  all  the  time 
if  I  did.  You  see,  though  she  isn't  a  slave  any 
more,  she's  never  had  any  wages,  and  so  she  takes 
it  out  in  privileges  and  prerogatives." 

"No  wages  ever  since  the  Civil  War !"  exclaimed 
Maud. 

199 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"We  had  to  have  servants,"  he  explained,  "and 
until  the  other  day  there  was  never  any  money  to 
pay  them  with.  We  had  nothing  but  the  planta- 
tion and  the  family  silver." 

"And  of  course  you  couldn't  part  with  that. 
In  the  North  when  we  get  hard  up  we  sell  any- 
thing we've  got.  But  in  the  South  you  don't,  and 
I've  always  admired  that  trait  in  you  beyond 
measure." 

"In  that  case,"  said  Mr.  Jonstone,  turning  a 
little  pale,  "it  is  my  duty  to  tell  you  that  the 
other  day  I  parted  with  my  silver  in  exchange  for 
a  large  sum  of  money.  I  made  up  my  mind  that 
I  had  only  one  life  to  live  and  that  I  was  sick  of 
being  poor." 

Maud  smiled. 

"If  you  want  to  keep  your  ill-gotten  gains," 
she  said,  "you  ought  never  to  have  come  to  this 
place.  Wasn't  there  some  kind  friend  to  tell 
you  that  our  prices  are  absolutely  prohibitive  ? 
We  haven't  gone  into  business  for  fun  but  with 
the  intention  of  making  money  hand  over  fist. 
It's  only  fair  to  warn  you." 

She  imagined  that,  at  the  outside,  he  might 
have  received  a  couple  of  thousand  dollars  for 
his  family  silver,  and  it  seemed  wicked  that  he 
should  be  allowed  to  part  with  this  little  capital 
for  food,  lodging,  and  a  little  trout-fishing. 

200 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"My  silver,"  he  said,  "turned  out  to  be  worth 
a  lot  of  money,  and  I  have  put  it  all  in  trust  for 
myself,  so  that  my  wife  and  children  shall  never 
want." 

A  flicker  of  disappointment  appeared  in  Maud 
Darling's  eyes. 

"But  I  didn't  know  you  were  married,"  she 
said  lamely. 

"Oh,  I'm  not — yet!"  he  exclaimed  joyfully. 
"But  I  mean  to  be." 

"Engaged?"  she  asked. 

"Hope  to  be — mean  to  be,"  he  confessed. 

And  at  this  moment  Colonel  Melville  Meredith 
came  in  out  of  the  night.  Having  bowed  very 
low  to  Miss  Darling,  he  turned  to  his  cousin. 

"Did  Langham  find  you?"  he  asked. 

"No." 

"Well,  he's  a-waiting  at  our  house.  I  said  I 
thought  you'd  be  right  back." 

"Then  we — "  began  Jonstone. 

"Not  we — you,"  said  his  cousin,  malice  in  his 
eyes.  "I  want  to  ask  Miss  Darling  some  ques- 
tions about  telegrams  and  special  messages  by 
telephone." 

Bob  Jonstone  withdrew  himself  with  the  ut- 
most reluctance. 

"We  have  a  telephone  that  connects  us  with 

2OI 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  telegraph  office  at  Canytown,"  Maud  began, 
but  Colonel  Meredith  interrupted  almost  rudely. 

"We  engaged  our  rooms  for  ten  days  only," 
he  said,  "but  I  want  to  keep  them  for  the  rest 
of  the  summer.  Please  don't  tell  me  that  they  are 
promised  to  some  one  else." 

"But  they  are,"  said  she;  "I'm  very  sorry." 

"Can't  you  possibly  keep  us?" 

She  shook  her  fine  head  less  in  negation  than 
reflection. 

"I  don't  see  how,"  she  said  finally,  "unless 
some  one  gives  out  at  the  last  minute.  There  are 
just  so  many  rooms  and  just  so  many  applicants." 

"How  long,"  he  asked,  "would  it  take  to  build 
a  little  house  for  my  cousin  and  me  ?" 

"If  we  got  all  the  carpenters  from  Carry  town," 
said  Maud,  "it  could  be  done  very  quickly. 
But " 

"Now  you  are  going  to  make  some  other  ob- 
jection !" 

"I  was  only  going  to  say  that  if  you  wanted 
to  go  camping  for  a  few  weeks,  we  could  supply 
you  with  everything  needful.  We  have  first-rate 
tents  for  just  that  sort  of  thing." 

"But  we  don't  want  to  go  camping.  We 
want  to  stay  here." 

"Exactly.  There  is  no  reason  why  you 
202 


The  Seven  Darlings 

shouldn't  pitch  your  tent  in  the  main  street  of 
this  camp  and  live  in  it." 

"That's  just  what  we'll  do,"  said  Colonel  Mer- 
edith, "and  to-morrow  we'll  pick  out  the  site 
for  the  tent — if  you'll  help  us." 


203 


XXII 

EARLY  the  next  morning  Colonel  Meredith 
and  his  cousin  Bob  Jonstone  presented  them- 
selves at  the  office  dressed  for  walking.  Butter 
would  not  have  melted  in  their  mouths. 

"Can  you  come  now  and  help  us  pick  out  a  site 
for  the  tent  ? "  asked  the  youthful  colonel. 

Maud  was  rather  busy  that  morning,  but  she 
closed  her  ledger,  selected  a  walking-stick,  and 
smiled  her  willingness  to  aid  them. 

"  It  will  seem  more  like  real  camping-out,"  said 
Mr.  Jonstone,  "if  we  don't  pitch  our  tent  right 
in  the  midst  of  things.  Suppose  we  take  a  boat 
and  row  along  the  shores  of  the  lake,  keeping  our 
eyes  peeled." 

Maud  was  not  averse  to  going  for  a  row  with 
two  handsome  and  agreeable  young  men.  They 
selected  a  guide  boat  and  insisted  on  helping  her 
in  and  cautioning  her  about  sitting  in  the  middle. 
Maud  had  almost  literally  been  brought  up  in  a 
guide  boat,  but  she  only  smiled  discreetly.  The 
cousins  matched  for  places.  As  Maud  sat  in  the 

204 


The  Seven  Darlings 

stern  with  a  paddle  for  steering,  Colonel  Mere- 
dith, who  won  the  toss,  elected  to  row  stroke. 
Bob  Jonstone  climbed  with  gingerness  and  melan- 
choly into  the  bow.  Not  only  was  he  a  long  way 
from  that  beautiful  girl,  but  Meredith's  head  and 
shoulders  almost  completely  blanketed  his  view 
of  her. 

"We  ought  to  row  English  style,"  he  said. 

"What  is  English  style,  and  why  ought  we  to 
row  that  way?" 

"In  the  American  shells,"  explained  Jonstone, 
"the  men  sit  in  the  middle.  In  the  English  shells 
each  man  sits  as  far  from  his  rowlock  as  possible." 

"Why?"  asked  Meredith,  who  understood  his 
cousin's  predicament  perfectly. 

"So's  to  get  more  leverage,"  explained  Jon- 
stone darkly. 

"It's  for  Miss  Darling  to  say,"  said  Meredith. 
"Which  style  do  you  prefer,  Miss  Darling,  Eng- 
lish or  American  ?" 

"I  think  the  American  will  be  more  comfort- 
able for  you  both  and  safer  for  us  all,"  said  she. 

"There!"  exclaimed  the  man  of  war,  "what 
did  I  tell  you?" 

"But — "    continued    Maud. 

"I  could  have  told  you  there  would  be  a  'but,'" 
interrupted  Jonstone  triumphantly. 

205 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"But,"  repeated  Maud,  "I'm  coxswain,  and  I 
want  to  see  what  every  man  in  my  boat  is  doing." 

So  they  rowed  English  style. 

"It's  like  a  dinner-party,"  explained  Maud  to 
Colonel  Meredith,  who  appeared  slightly  discom- 
forted. "Don't  you  know  how  annoying  it  is 
when  there's  a  tall  centrepiece  and  you  can't  see 
who's  across  the  table  from  you?" 

"  Even  if  you  don't  want  to  look  at  him  when 
you  have  found  out  who  he  is,"  agreed  Meredith. 
"Exactly." 

They  came  to  a  bold  headland  of  granite  crowned 
with  a  half-dozen  old  pines  that  leaned  water- 
ward. 

"That's  rather  a  wonderful  site,  I  think,"  said 
Maud. 

"Where?"  said  the  gentlemen,  turning  to  look 
over  their  shoulders.  Then,  "It  looks  well  enough 
from  the  water,"  said  Jonstone,  "but  we  ought 
not  to  choose  wildly." 

"Let  us  land,"  said  Colonel  Meredith,  "and 
explore." 

They  landed  and  began  at  once  to  find  reasons 
for  pitching  the  tent  on  the  promontory  and  rea- 
sons for  not  pitching  it. 

"The  site  is  open  and  airy,"  said  Jonstone. 

"It  is,"  said  Colonel  Meredith.  "But,  in  case  of 
206 


The  Seven  Darlings 

a  southwest  gale,  our  tent  would  be  blown  inside 
out." 

A  moment  later,  "How  about  drinking-water  ?" 
asked  the  experienced  military  man. 

"I  regret  to  say  that  I  have  just  stepped  into 
a  likely  spring,"  said  Jonstone. 

"We  must  sit  down  and  wait  till  it  clears.". 

When  the  spring  once  more  bubbled  clean  and 
undefiled  Mr.  Jonstone  scooped  up  two  palmfuls 
of  water  and  drank. 

"Delicious!"  he  cried. 

Colonel  Meredith  then  sampled  the  spring  and 
shook  his  head  darkly. 

"This  spring  has  a  main  attribute  of  drinking- 
water,"  he  said;  "it  is  wet.  Otherwise " 

"What's  the  matter  with  my  spring?"  de- 
manded his  cousin. 

"Silica,  my  dear  fellow — silica.  And  you  know 
very  well  that  silica  to  a  man  of  your  inherited 
tendencies  spells  gout." 

Jonstone  nodded  gravely. 

"I'm  afraid  that  settles  it."  And  he  turned  to 
Maud  Darling.  "I  can  keep  clear  of  gout,"  he 
explained,  "only  just  as  long  as  I  keep  my  system 
free  from  silica." 

"Do  you  usually  manage  to?"  asked  Maud, 
very  much  puzzled. 

207 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"So  far,"  he  said,  "I  have  always  managed  to." 
"Then  you  have  never  suffered  from  gout?" 
"Never.     But  now,  having  drunk  at  this  spring, 
I  have  reason  to  fear  the  worst.     It  will  take  at 
least  a  week  to  get  that  one  drink  out  of  my 
system." 

And  so  they  passed  from  the  promontory  with 
the  pine-trees  to  a  little  cove  with  a  sandy  beach, 
from  this  to  a  wooded  island  not  much  bigger 
than  a  tennis-court.  In  every  suggested  site 
Jonstone  found  multitudinous  charms  and  advan- 
tages, while  Colonel  Meredith,  from  the  depths  of 
his  military  experience,  produced  objections  of  the 
first  water.  For  to  be  as  long  as  possible  in  the 
company  of  that  beautiful  girl  was  the  end  which 
both  sought. 

Maud  had  gone  upon  the  expedition  in  good 
faith,  but  when  its  true  object  dawned  upon  her 
she  was  not  in  the  least  displeased.  The  very 
obvious  worship  which  the  Carolinians  had  for 
her  beauty  was  not  so  personal  as  to  make  her 
uncomfortable.  It  was  rather  the  worship  of 
two  artists  for  art  itself  than  for  a  particular 
masterpiece.  Of  the  six  beautiful  Darlings  Maud 
had  had  the  least  experience  of  young  men.  She 
was  given  to  fits  of  shyness  which  passed  with 
some  as  reserve,  with  others  as  a  kind  of  common- 

208 


The  Seven  Darlings 

sense  and  matter-of-fact  way  of  looking  at  life. 
The  triplets,  young  as  they  were,  surpassed  the 
other  three  in  conquests  and  experience.  And 
this  was  not  because  they  were  more  lovely  and 
more  charming  but  because  they  had  been  a  lit- 
tle spoiled  by  their  father  and  brought  into  the 
limelight  before  their  time.  Furthermore,  with  the 
exception  of  Phyllis,  perhaps,  they  were  maidens 
of  action  to  whom  there  was  no  recourse  in  books 
or  reflection.  Such  accomplishments  as  draw- 
ing and  music  had  not  been  forced  upon  them. 
They  could  not  have  made  a  living  teaching  school. 
But  Lee  and  Gay  certainly  could  have  taught  the 
young  idea  how  to  shoot,  how  to  throw  a  fly, 
and  how  to  come  in  out  of  the  wet  when  no  house 
was  handy.  As  for  Phyllis,  she  would  have  been 
as  like  them  as  one  pea  is  like  two  others  but 
for  the  fact  that  at  the  age  of  two  she  had  suc- 
ceeded in  letting  ofF  a  45-90  rifle  which  some  fool 
had  left  about  loaded  and  had  thereby  frightened 
her  early  sporting  promises  to  death.  But  it  was 
only  of  weapons,  squirming  fish,  boats,  and  thun- 
der storms  that  she  was  shy.  Young  gentlemen 
had  no  terrors  for  her,  and  she  preferred  the  stu- 
pidest of  these  to  the  cleverest  of  books. 

Mary,  Maud,  and  Eve  had  wasted  a  great  part 
of  their  young  lives  upon  education.     They  could 

209 


The  Seven  Darlings 

play  the  piano  pretty  well  (you  couldn't  tell  which 
was  playing);  they  sang  charmingly;  they  knew 
French  and  German;  they  could  spell  English, 
and  even  speak  it  correctly,  a  power  which  they 
had  sometimes  found  occasion  to  exercise  when 
in  the  company  of  foreign  diplomatists.  The 
change  in  their  case  from  girlhood  to  young 
womanhood  had  been  sudden  and  prearranged: 
in  each  case  a  tremendous  ball  upon  a  given  date. 
The  triplets  had  never  "come  out." 

If  Lee  or  Gay  had  been  the  victim  of  the  present 
conspiracy,  the  gentlemen  from  Carolina  would 
have  found  their  hands  full  and  overflowing.  They 
would  have  been  teased  and  misconstrued  within 
an  inch  of  their  lives;  but  Maud  Darling  was  gen- 
uinely moved  by  the  candor  and  chivalry  of  their 
combined  attentions.  There  was  a  genuine  joy- 
ousness  in  her  heart,  and  she  did  not  care  whether 
they  got  her  home  in  time  for  lunch  or  not.  And 
it  was  only  a  strong  sense  of  duty  which  caused 
her  to  point  out  the  high  position  attained  by 
the  sun  in  the  heavens. 

With  reluctance  the  trio  gave  up  the  hopeless 
search  for  a  camp  site  and  started  for  home  upon 
a  long  diagonal  across  the  lake.  It  was  just  then, 
as  if  a  signal  had  been  given,  that  the  whole  sur- 
face of  the  lake  became  ruffled  as  when  a  piece  of 

210 


The  Seven  Darlings 

blue  velvet  is  rubbed  the  wrong  way,  and  a  strong 
wind  began  to  blow  in  Maud's  face  and  upon  the 
backs  of  the  rowers. 

Several  hours  of  steady  rowing  had  had  its 
effect  upon  unaccustomed  hands.  It  was  now 
necessary  to  pull  strongly,  and  blisters  grew 
swiftly  from  small  beginnings  and  burst  in  the 
palms  of  the  Carolinians.  Maud  came  to  their 
rescue  with  her  steering  paddle,  but  the  wind, 
bent  upon  having  sport  with  them,  sounded  a 
higher  note,  and  the  guide  boat  no  longer 
seemed  quick  to  the  least  propulsion  and  light  on 
the  water,  but  as  if  blunt  forward,  high  to  the 
winds,  and  half  full  of  stones.  She  did  not  run 
between  strokes  but  came  to  dead  stops,  and 
sometimes,  during  strong  gusts,  actually  appeared 
to  lose  ground. 

The  surface  of  the  lake  didn't  as  yet  testify 
truly  to  the  full  strength  of  the  wind.  But  soon 
the  little  waves  grew  taller,  the  intervals  between 
them  wider,  and  their  crests  began  to  be  blown 
from  them  in  white  spray.  The  heavens  darkened 
more  and  more,  and  to  the  northeast  the  sky-line 
was  gradually  blotted  out  as  if  by  soft  gray  smoke. 

"We're  going  to  have  rain,"  said  Maud,  "and 
we're  going  to  have  fog.  So  we'd  better  hurry 
a  little." 

211 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Hurry  ?"  thought  the  Carolinians  sadly.  And 
they  redoubled  their  efforts,  with  the  result  that 
they  began  to  catch  crabs. 

"Some  one  ought  to  see  us  and  send  a  launch," 
said  Maud. 

At  that  moment,  as  the  wind  flattens  a  field  of 
wheat  to  the  ground,  the  waves  bent  and  lay  down 
before  a  veritable  blast  of  black  rain.  It  would 
have  taken  more  than  human  strength  to  hold 
the  guide  boat  to  her  course.  Maud  paddled 
desperately  for  a  quarter  of  a  minute  and  gave  up. 
The  boat  swung  sharply  on  her  keel,  rocked  dan- 
gerously, and,  once  more  light  and  sentient,  a 
creature  of  life,  made  off  bounding  before  the  gale. 

"We  are  very  sorry,"  said  the  Carolinians, 
"but  the  skin  is  all  off  our  hands,  and  at  the  best 
we  are  indifferent  boatmen." 

"The  point  is  this,"  said  Maud:  "Can  you 
swim  ? " 

"I  can,"  said  Colonel  Meredith,  "but  I  am 
extremely  sorry  to  confess  that  my  cousin's 
aquatic  education  has  been  neglected.  Where 
he  lives  every  pool  contains  crocodiles,  leeches, 
snapping-turtles,  and  water-moccasins,  and  the 
incentive  to  bathing  for  pleasure  is  slight." 

"Don't  worry  about  me,"  said  Mr.  Jonstone. 
"I  can  cling  to  the  boat  until  the  millennium." 

212 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"We  shan't  upset — probably,"  said  Maud.  "It 
will  be  better  if  you  two  sit  in  the  bottom  of 
the  boat.  I'll  try  to  steer  and  hold  her  steady. 
This  isn't  the  first  time  I've  been  blown  off  shore 
and  then  on  shore.  I  suppose  I  ought  to  apologize 
for  the  weather,  but  it  really  isn't  my  fault.  Who 
would  have  thought  this  morning  that  we  were  in 
for  a  storm  ? " 

"If  only  you  don't  mind,"  said  Colonel  Mere- 
dith. "It's  all  our  fault.  You  probably  didn't 
want  to  come.  You  just  came  to  be  friendly  and 
kind,  and  now  you  are  hungry  and  wet  to  the 
skin " 

"But,"  interrupted  Bob  Jonstone,  "if  only  you 
will  forget  all  that  and  think  what  pleasure  we 
are  having." 

"I  can't  hear  what  you  say,"  called  Maud. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,"  shouted  Mr.  Jonstone. 
"I  didn't  quite  catch  that.  What  did  Miss  Dar- 
ling say,  Mel?" 

"She  said  she  wanted  to  talk  to  me  and  for  you 
to  shut  up." 

Mr.  Jonstone  made  a  playful  but  powerful 
swing  at  his  cousin,  and  the  guide  boat,  as  if 
suddenly  tired  of  her  passengers,  calmly  upset 
and  spilled  them  out. 

A  moment  later  the  true  gallantry  of  Mr.  Bob 
213 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Jonstone  showed  forth  in  glorious  colors.  Having 
risen  to  the  surface  and  made  good  his  hold  upon 
the  overturned  boat,  he  proposed  very  humbly, 
as  amends  for  causing  the  accident,  to  let  go  and 
drown. 

"If  you  do,"  said  Maud,  excitement  overcom- 
ing her  sense  of  the  ridiculous,  "I'll  never  speak 
to  you  again." 

Colonel  Meredith  opened  his  mouth  to  laugh 
and  closed  it  a  little  hastily  on  about  a  pint  of 
water. 


214 


XXIII 

THE  water  was  so  rough,  the  weather  so  thick, 
and  their  point  of  view  so  very  low  down  in 
the  world  that  Maud  and  the  Carolinians  could 
neither  see  the  shore  from  which  they  had  de- 
parted nor  that  toward  which  they  were  slowly 
drifting.  The  surface  water  was  warm,  however, 
owing  to  a  week  of  sunshine,  and  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  drop  one's  legs  into  the  icy  stratum  be- 
neath. 

It  is  curious  that  what  the  three  complained  of 
the  most  was  the  incessant,  leaden  rain.  Their 
faces  were  colder  than  their  bodies.  They  admit- 
ted that  they  had  never  been  so  wet  in  all  their 
lives.  Maud  and  Colonel  Meredith,  not  content 
with  the  slow  drifting,  kicked  vigorously;  but 
Bob  Jonstone  had  all  he  could  do  to  cling  to  the 
guide  boat  and  keep  his  head  above  water.  His 
legs  had  a  way  of  suddenly  rising  toward  the  sur- 
face and  wrapping  themselves  half  around  the 
submerged  boat.  An  effort  was  made  to  right  the 
boat  and  bale  her  out.  But  Maud's  water-soaked 


The  Seven  Darlings 

skirt  and  a  sudden  case  of  rattles  on  the  part  of 
Jonstone  prevented  the  success  of  the  manoeuvre. 

Half  an  hour  passed. 

"Personally,"  said  Jonstone,  "I've  had  about 
enough  of  this/' 

His  clinging  hands  looked  white  and  thin;  the 
knuckles  were  beginning  to  turn  blue.  He  had  a 
drawn  expression  about  the  mouth,  but  his  eyes 
were  bright  and  resolute. 

"I've  always  understood,"  said  Colonel  Mere- 
dith, "that  girls  suffer  less  than  men  from  total 
submersion  in  cold  water.  I  sincerely  hope,  Miss 
Darling,  that  this  is  so." 

"Oh,  I'm  not  suffering,"  said  she;  "not  yet. 
My  father  used  to  let  us  go  in  sometimes  when 
there  was  a  skin  of  ice  along  shore.  So  please 
don't  worry  about  me." 

Mr.  Jonstone's  teeth  began  to  chatter  very 
steadily  and  loudly.  And  just  then  Maud  raised 
herself  a  little,  craned  her  neck,  and  had  a  glimpse 
of  the  shore — a  long,  half-submerged  point,  al- 
most but  not  quite  obliterated  by  the  fog  and  the 
splashing  rain. 

"Land  ho!"  said  she  joyfully.  "All's  well. 
There's  a  big  shallow  off  here;  we'll  be  able  to 
wade  in  a  minute." 

And,  indeed,  in  less  than  a  minute  Bob  Jon- 
216 


The  Seven  Darlings 

stone's  feet  found  the  hard  sand  bottom.  And 
in  a  very  short  time  three  shipwrecked  mariners 
had  waded  ashore  and  dragged  the  guide  boat 
into  a  clump  of  bushes. 

"And  now  what?"  asked  Colonel  Meredith. 

"And  now,"  said  Maud,  "the  luck  has  changed. 
Half  a  mile  from  here  is  a  cave  where  we  used  to 
have  picnics.  There's  an  axe  there,  matches,  and 
probably  a  tin  of  cigarettes,  and  possibly  things 
to  eat.  It's  all  up-hill  from  here,  and  if  you  two 
follow  me  and  keep  up,  you'll  be  warm  before  we 
get  there." 

Her  wet  clothes  clung  to  her,  and  she  went 
before  them  like  some  swift  woodland  goddess. 
Their  spirits  rose,  and  with  them  their  voices,  so 
that  the  deer  and  other  animals  of  the  neighbor- 
ing woods  were  disturbed  and  annoyed  in  the 
shelters  which  they  had  chosen  from  the  rain. 
Sometimes  Maud  ran;  sometimes  she  merely 
moved  swiftly;  but  now  and  then  while  the  way 
was  still  among  the  dense  waterside  alders,  she 
broke  her  way  through  with  fine  strength,  reck- 
less of  scratches. 

The  following  Carolinians  began  to  worship  the 
ground  she  trod  and  tc  stumble  heavily  upon  it. 
They  were  not  used  to  walking.  It  had  always 
been  their  custom  to  go  from  place  to  place  upon 

217 


The  Seven  Darlings 

horses.  They  panted  aloud.  They  began  to 
suspect  themselves  of  heart  trouble,  and  they 
had  one  heavy  fall  apiece. 

Suddenly  Maud  came  to  a  dead  stop. 

"I  smell  smoke,"  she  said.  "Some  one  is  here 
before  us.  That's  good  luck,  too." 

She  felt  her  way  along  the  face  of  a  great 
bowlder  and  was  seen  to  enter  the  narrow  mouth 
of  a  cave. 

"Who's  here?"  she  called  cheerfully. 

The  passageway  into  the  cave  twisted  like  the 
letter  S  so  that  you  came  suddenly  upon  the 
main  cavity.  This — a  space  as  large  as  a  ball- 
room— had  a  smooth  floor  of  sand,  broken  by 
one  or  two  ridges  of  granite.  At  the  farther  end 
burned  a  bright  fire,  most  of  whose  smoke  after 
slow,  aimless  drifting  was  strongly  sucked  upward 
through  a  hole  in  the  roof.  Closely  gathered 
about  this  fire  were  four  men,  who  looked  like 
rather  dissolute  specimens  of  the  Adirondack 
guide,  and  a  young  woman  with  an  old  face. 
Maud's  quick  eyes  noted  two  rusty  Winchester 
rifles,  a  leather  mail-bag,  and  the  depressing  fact 
that  the  men  had  not  shaved  for  many  days. 

It  is  always  awkward  to  enter  3'our  own  private 
cave  and  find  it  occupied  by  strangers. 

"You  mustn't  mind,"  said  Maud,  smiling  upon 
218 


O 

c 

H3 


The  Seven  Darlings 

them,  "if  we  share  the  fire.  It's  really  our  cave 
and  our  firewood." 

"Sorry,  miss,"  said  one  of  the  men  gruffly, 
"but  when  it  comes  on  to  rain  like  this  a  man 
makes  bold  of  any  shelter  that  offers." 

"Of  course,"  said  Maud.  "I'm  glad  you  did. 
We'll  just  dry  ourselves  and  go." 

She  seated  herself  with  a  Carolinian  on  either 
side,  and  their  clothes  began  to  send  up  clouds 
of  steam. 

The  young  woman  with  the  old  face,  having 
devoured  Maud  with  hungry,  sad  eyes,  spoke  in 
a  shy,  colorless  voice. 

"It  would  be  better,  miss,  if  you  was  to  let 
the  boys  go  outside.  I  could  lend  you  my  blanket 
while  your  clothes  dried." 

"That's  very  good  of  you,"  said  Maud,  "but 
I'm  very  warm  and  comfortable  and  drying  out 
nicely." 

One  of  the  men  rose,  grinned  awkwardly,  and 
said: 

"I'll  just  have  a  look  at  the  weather."  With 
affected  carelessness  he  caught  up  one  of  the  Win- 
chesters and  passed  from  sight  toward  the  en- 
trance of  the  cave.  This  manoeuvre  seemed  to 
have  a  cheering  effect  upon  the  other  three. 

"What  do  you  find  to  shoot  at  this  time  of 
219 


The  Seven  Darlings 

year?"  asked  Maud,  and  she  smiled  with  great 
innocence. 

"The  game-laws,"  said  the  man  who  had 
spoken  first,  "weren't  written  for  poor  men." 

"Don't  tell  me,"  exclaimed  Maud,  "that  youVe 
got  a  couple  of  partridges  or  even  venison  just 
waiting  to  be  cooked  and  eaten!" 

"No  such  luck,"  said  the  man. 

Neither  of  the  Carolinians  had.  spoken.  They 
steamed  pleasantly  and  appeared  to  be  looking 
for  pictures  in  the  hot  embers.  Their  eyes  seemed 
to  have  sunk  deeper  into  their  skulls.  Men  who 
were  familiar  with  them  would  have  known  that 
they  were  very  angry  about  something  and  as 
dangerous  as  a  couple  of  rattlesnakes.  After  a 
long  while  they  exchanged  a  few  words  in  low 
voices  and  a  strange  tongue.  It  was  the  dialect 
of  the  Sea  Island  negroes — the  purest  African 
grafted  on  English  so  pure  that  nobody  speaks  it 
nowadays. 

"What  say?"  asked  one  of  the  strangers 
roughly. 

Colonel  Meredith  turned  his  eyes  slowly  upon 
the  speaker. 

"I  remarked  to  my  cousin,"  said  he  icily, 
"that  in  our  part  of  the  world  even  the  lowest 
convict  knows  enough  to  rise  to  his  feet  when  a 

220 


The  Seven  Darlings 

lady  enters  the  room  and  to  apologize  for  being 
alive." 

"In  the  North  Woods,"  said  the  man  sulkily, 
"no  one  stands  on  ceremony.  If  you  don't  like 
our  manners,  Mr.  Baltimore  Oriole,  you  can 
lump  'em,  see  ? " 

"I  see,"  said  Colonel  Meredith  quietly,  "that 
that  leather  mail-bag  over  there  belongs  to  the 
United  States  Government.  And  I  have  a  strong 
suspicion,  my  man,  that  you  and  your  allies 
were  concerned  in  the  late  hold-up  perpetrated 
on  the  Montreal  express.  And  I  shall  certainly 
make  it  my  business  to  report  you  as  suspicious 
characters  to  the  proper  authorities." 

"That'll  be  too  easy,"  said  the  man.  "And 
suppose  we  was  what  you  think,  what  would  we 
be  doing  in  the  meantime  ?  I  ask  you  what  ?  " 

Mr.  Jonstone  interrupted  in  a  soft  voice. 

"Oh,  quit  blustering  and  threatening,"  he  said. 

"Say,"  said  a  man  who  had  not  yet  spoken, 
"do  you  two  sprigs  of  jasmine  ever  patronize 
the  'movies'  ?  And,  if  so,  did  you  ever  look  your 
fill  on  a  film  called  'Held  for  Ransom'  ?  You  folks 
has  a  look  of  being  kind  o'  well  to  do,  and  it  looks 
to  me  as  if  you'd  have  to  pay  for  it." 

"Why  quarrel  with  them?"  said  Maud,  with 
gravity  and  displeasure  in  her  voice,  but  no  fear. 

221 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Things  are  bad  enough  as  they  are.  I  saw  that 
the  minute  we  came  in.  Just  one  minute  too 
late,  it  seems." 

"That's  horse-sense,"  admitted  one  of  the  men. 
"And  when  this  rain  holds  up,  one  of  us  will 
take  a  message  to  your  folks  saying  as  how  you 
are  stopping  at  an  expensive  hotel  and  haven't 
got  money  enough  to  pay  your  bill." 

"And  that,"  said  Colonel  Meredith,  "will  only 
leave  three  of  you  to  guard  us.  Once,"  he  turned 
to  Maud,  "I  spent  six  hours  in  a  Turkish  prison." 

"What  happened?"  she  asked. 

"I  didn't  like  it,"  he  said,  "and  left." 

"This  ain't  Turkey,  young  feller,  and  we  ain't 
Turks.  If  you  don't  like  the  cave  you  can  lump 
it,  but  you  can't  leave." 

"We  don't  intend  to  leave  till  it  stops  raining," 
put  in  Mr.  Jonstone  sweetly. 

"Miss  Darling,"  said  Colonel  Meredith,  "you 
don't  feel  chilled,  do  you  ?  You  mustn't  take 
this  adventure  seriously.  These  people  are  des- 
perate characters,  but  they  haven't  the  mental 
force  to  be  dangerous.  It  will  be  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  the  world  both  to  my  cousin  and  my- 
self to  see  that  no  harm  befalls  you."  He  turned 
once  more  to  the  unshaven  men  about  the  fire. 

"Have  you  got  anything  worth  while  in  that 

222 


The  Seven  Darlings 

mail-bag?"  he  asked.  "I  read  that  the  safe  in 
the  Montreal  express  only  contained  a  few  hun- 
dred dollars.  Hardly  worth  risking  prison  for — 
was  it?" 

"We'll  have  enough  to  risk  prison  for  before 
we  get  through  with  you." 

"You  might  if  you  managed  well,  because  I 
am  a  rich  man.  But  you  are  sure  to  bungle." 

He  turned  to  the  woman  and  asked  with  great 
kindness: 

"Is  it  their  first  crime  ?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  she  said.    "Mr. " 

"Shut  up!"  growled  one  of  her  companions. 

"A  gentleman  from  New  York  turned  us  out 
of  the  woods  so's  he  could  have  them  all  to  him- 
self and  after  we'd  spent  all  our  money  on  lawyers. 
So  my  husband  and  the  boys  allowed  they  had 
about  enough  of  the  law.  And  so  they  held  up  the 
express,  but  it  was  more  because  they  were  mad 
clear  through  than  because  they  are  bad,  and 
now  it's  too  late,  and — and " 

Here  she  began  to  cry. 

"It's  never  too  late  to  mend,"  said  Maud. 

"Have  you  spent  any  of  the  money  they  took  ?" 
asked  Colonel  Meredith. 

"No,  sir;  we  haven't  had  a  chance.  We've 
got  every  dime  of  it." 

223 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Did  you  own  the  land  you  were  driven  off?" 

"No,  sir,  but  we'd  always  lived  on  it,  and  it 
did  seem  as  if  we  ought  to  be  left  in  peace — 

"To  shoot  out  of  season,  to  burn  other  people's 
wood,  trap  their  fish,  and  show  your  teeth  at  them 
when  they  came  to  take  what  belonged  to  them  ?  I 
congratulate  you.  You  are  American  to  the  back- 
bone. And  now  you  propose  to  take  my  money 
away  from  me." 

Colonel  Meredith  turned  to  his  cousin,  after 
excusing  himself  to  Maud,  and  they  conversed 
for  some  time  in  their  strange  Sea  Island  dialect. 

"Can  that  gibberish,"  said  one  of  the  train 
robbers  suddenly.  "I'm  sick  of  it." 

"We  shan't  trouble  you  with  it  again,  as  we've 
already  decided  what  to  do." 

The  robber  laughed  mockingly. 

"In  view  of  your  extreme  youth,"  said  Colonel 
Meredith  sweetly,  "in  view  of  the  fact  that  you 
are  also  young  in  crime  and  that  one  member  of 
your  party  is  a  woman,  we  have  decided  to  help 
you  along  the  road  to  reform.  In  my  State  there 
is  considerable  lawlessness;  from  this  has  evolved 
the  useful  custom  of  going  heeled." 

He  spoke,  and  a  blue  automatic  flashed  cruelly 
in  his  white  hand.  His  action  was  as  sudden  and 
unexpected  as  the  striking  of  a  rattlesnake. 

224 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"All  hands  up,"  he  commanded. 

There  was  a  long  silence. 

"You've  got  us,"  said  the  youngest  of  the 
robbers  sheepishly.  "How  about  the  man  on 
guard  with  a  Winchester?" 

"My  cousin  Mr.  Jonstone  will  bring  him  in 
to  join  the  conference.  And,  meanwhile,  I  shall 
have  to  ask  the  ladies  to  look  the  other  way 
while  my  cousin  changes  clothes  with  one  of  you 
gentlemen.'*' 

Of  the  three  villains,  Jonstone  selected  the 
youngest  and  the  tidiest,  and  with  mutual  re- 
luctance, suspicion,  and  startled  glances  toward 
where  the  ladies  sat  with  averted  faces,  they 
changed  clothes. 

A  broad  felt  hat,  several  sizes  too  big  for  him, 
added  the  touch  of  completion  to  the  Carolinian's 
transformation.  He  took  the  spare  Winchester 
and,  without  a  word,  walked  quietly  toward  the 
mouth  of  the  cave  and  was  lost  to  sight. 

Maud  did  not  breathe  freely  until  he  had  re- 
turned, unhurt,  carrying  both  Winchesters  and 
driving  an  exceedingly  sheepish  backwoodsman 
before  him. 

He  expressed  the  wish  to  resume  his  own 
clothes.  This  done,  he  and  his  cousin  broke 
into  good-natured,  boyish  laughter. 

225 


The  Seven  Darlings 

The  oldest  and  most  sheepish  of  the  backwoods- 
men kept  repeating,  "Who  would  'a'  thought  he'd 
have  a  pistol  on  him!"  and  seemed  to  find  a 
world  of  comfort  in  the  thought. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  them  ?"  Maud 
asked  almost  in  a  whisper.  "I  think  I  feel  a 
little  sorry  for  them." 

"Bob!"  exclaimed  Colonel  Meredith. 

"What?" 

"She  feels  a  little  sorry  for  them.    Don't  you  ?" 

"Yes,  sir!"  replied  Mr.  Jonstone  fervently. 

Colonel  Meredith  addressed  himself  to  the 
young  woman  with  the  old  face. 

"Do  you  believe  in  fairies?"  he  asked. 

She  only  looked  pathetic  and  confused. 

"Miss  Darling,  here,"  he  went  on,  "is  a  fairy. 
She  left  her  wand  at  home,  but  if  she  wants  to 
she  can  make  people's  wishes  come  true.  Now 
suppose  you  and  your  friends  talk  things  over 
and  decide  upon  some  sensible  wishes  to  have 
granted.  Of  course,  it's  no  use  wishing  you  hadn't 
robbed  a  train;  but  you  could  wish  that  the  money 
would  be  returned,  and  that  the  police  could  be 
induced  to  stop  looking  for  you,  and  that  some 
one  could  come  along  and  offer  you  an  honest 
way  of  making  a  living.  So  you  talk  it  over  a 
while  and  then  tell  us  what  you'd  like." 

226 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Aren't  you  going  to  give  us  up  ?"  asked  one  of 
the  men. 

"Not  if  you've  any  sense  at  all." 

"Then  I  guess  there's  no  use  us  talking  things 
over.  And  if  the  young  lady  is  a  fairy,  we'd  be 
obliged  if  she'd  get  busy  along  the  lines  you've 
just  laid  down." 

All  eyes  were  turned  on  Maud.  And  she 
looked  appealingly  from  Colonel  Meredith  to 
Mr.  Jonstone  and  back  again. 

"What  ought  I  to  say?  What  ought  I  to 
promise  ?  Can  the  money  be  returned  ?  Can 
the  police  be  called  off?  And  if  I  only  had 
some  work  to  give  them,  but  over  at  The 
Camp " 

"Every  good  fairy,"  said  Colonel  Meredith, 
"has  two  helpers  to  whom  all  things  are  possible." 

"Truly?" 

The  Carolinians  sprang  to  their  feet,  clicked 
their  heels  together  into  the  first  position  of 
dancing,  laid  their  right  hands  over  their  hearts, 
and  bowed  very  low. 

"Then,"  said  Maud  laughing,  "I  should  like 
the  money  to  be  returned." 

"I  will  attend  to  that,"  said  Colonel  Meredith. 

"And  the  police  to  be  called  off." 

Again  the  soldier  assumed  responsibility. 
227 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"But  who,"  she  asked,  "will  find  work  for 
them?" 

"I  will,"  said  Mr.  Jonstone.  "They  shall 
build  the  house  for  my  cousin  and  me  to  live  in. 
You  can  build  a  house,  can't  you  ?  A  log  house  ?" 

"But  where  will  you  build  it?"  asked  Maud. 
"You  found  fault  with  all  the  best  sites  on  the 
lake." 

"The  very  first  site  we  visited  suited  us  to 
perfection." 

"But  you  said  the  spring  contained  cyanide 
or  something." 

"We  were  talking  through  our  hats." 

"But  why- 

The  Carolinians  gazed  at  her  with  a  kind  of 
beseeching  ardor,  until  she  understood  that  they 
had  only  found  fault  with  one  promising  building 
site  after  another  in  order  that  they  might  pass 
the  longest  time  possible  in  her  company. 

And  she  returned  their  glance  with  one  in 
which  there  was  some  feeling  stronger  than  mere 
amusement. 


228 


XXIV 

CONCERNING  information,  Mark  Twain 
wrote  that  it  appeared  to  stew  out  of  him 
naturally,  like  the  precious  ottar  of  roses  out  of  the 
otter.  With  the  narrator  of  this  episodical  history, 
however,  things  are  very  different.  And  just  how 
the  good  fairy,  Maud  Darling,  was  enabled  to 
keep  her  promises  to  the  outlaws  seems  to  him  of 
no  great  moment.  But  the  money  was  returned 
to  the  express  company;  the  police  were  called  off; 
and  the  four  robbers,  with  the  woman  to  cook  for 
them,  went  to  work  at  building  a  log  house  on 
the  point  of  pines  to  be  occupied  in  the  near  future 
by  the  Carolinians. 

They  were  not  sorry  to  have  been  turned  from 
a  life  of  sin.  It  is  only  when  a  life  of  sin  is  gilded, 
padded,  and  pleasant  that  people  hate  to  turn 
from  it.  When  virtue  entails  being  rained  on, 
starved,  and  hunted,  it  isn't  a  very  pleasant  way 
of  life,  either. 

The  face  of  the  young  female  bandit  lost  its 
loot*  of  premature  old  age.  She  went  about  her 
work  singing,  and  the  humming  of  the  kettle  was 

229 


The  Seven  Darlings 

her  accompaniment.  The  four  men  looked  the 
other  men  of  the  camp  in  the  face  and  showed 
how  to  lay  trees  by  the  heels  in  record  time.  To 
their  well-swung  and  even  better-sharpened  axes 
even  the  stems  of  oaks  were  as  wax  candles.  It 
became  quite  "the  thing"  for  guests  at  The  Camp 
to  go  out  to  the  point  and  admire  the  axe-work  and 
all  the  processes  of  frontier  house-building. 

When  people  speak  of  "love  in  a  cottage,"  there 
rises  nearly  always,  in  my  mind,  the  memory  of  a 
log  house  that  a  friend  of  mine  and  I  came  across 
by  the  headwaters  of  a  great  river  in  Canada. 

It  stood — the  axe  marks  crisp,  white,  and  blis- 
tered with  pitch — upon  the  brink  of  a  swirling 
brown  pool  full  of  grilse.  The  logs  of  which  it 
was  built  had  been  dragged  from  a  distance, 
so  that  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
cabin  was  no  desolation  of  dead  tree-tops  and 
dying  stumps.  Everything  was  wonderfully  neat, 
new,  and  in  order.  About  the  pool  and  the  cabin 
the  maples  had  turned  yellow  and  vermilion. 
And  above  was  the  peaceful  pale  blue  of  an  Indian- 
summer  sky. 

We  opened  the  door,  held  by  a  simple  latch, 
and  found  ourselves  in  the  pleasantest  of  rooms, 
just  twenty  feet  by  fifteen.  The  walls  and  the 
floor  had  been  much  whitened  and  smoothed  by 

230 


The  Seven  Darlings 

the  axe.  The  place  smelt  vaguely  of  pitch  and 
strongly  of  balsam.  There  was  a  fireplace — 
the  fire  all  laid,  a  bunk  to  lie  on,  a  chair  to  sit  on, 
a  table  to  write  on,  a  broom  to  sweep  with.  And 
neatly  set  upon  clean  shelves  were  various  jams 
in  glass,  and  meats,  biscuits,  and  soups  in  tins. 
There  was  also  a  writing  (on  birch  bark)  over  the 
shelves,  which  read:  "Help  yourself." 

We  took  down  the  shutters  from  the  windows 
and  let  in  floods  of  autumn  sun.  Then  we  lighted 
the  fire,  and  ate  crackers  and  jam. 

It  hurt  a  little  to  learn  at  the  mouth  of  our  guide 
that  the  cabin  belonged  to  a  somewhat  notorious 
and  decidedly  crotchety  New  York  financier  who 
controlled  the  salmon-fishing  in  those  waters.  I 
had  pictured  it  as  built  for  a  pair  of  eminently  sen- 
sible and  supernaturally  romantic  honeymooners 
or  for  a  poet.  And  I  wanted  to  carry  away  that 
impression.  For  in  such  a  place  love  or  inspira- 
tion must  have  lasted  just  as  long  as  the  crackers 
and  jam.  And  there  is  no  more  to  be  said  of  a 
palace. 

One  day  Mary  Darling  and  Sam  Langham 
visited  the  new  cabin.  And  Sam  said:  "If  one  of 
the  happy  pair  happened  to  know  something  of 
cooking,  what  a  place  for  a  honeymoon!" 

Shortly  afterward,  Phyllis  and  Herring  came 
231 


The  Seven  Darlings 

that  way,  and  Herring  said:  "If  I  was  in  love, 
and  knew  how  to  use  an  axe,  I'd  build  just  such  a 
house  for  the  girl  I  love  and  make  her  live  in  it. 
I  believe  I  will,  anyway." 

"  Believe  what  ? "  asked  Phyllis  demurely.  "Be- 
lieve you  will  make  her  live  in  it?" 

"Yes,"  he  said  darkly — "no  matter  who  she  is 
and  no  matter  how  afraid  of  the  mice  and  spiders 
with  which  such  places  ultimately  become  in- 
fested." 

Lee  and  Renier  visited  the  cabin,  also.  They 
remarked  only  that  it  had  a  wonderfully  smooth 
floor,  and  proceeded  at  once  thereon,  Lee  whis- 
tling exquisitely  and  with  much  spirit,  to  dance  a 
maxixe,  which  was  greatly  admired  by  the  ex- 
outlaws. 

Maud  came  often  with  the  Carolinians,  and  as 
for  Eve,  she  came  once  or  twice  all  by  herself. 

Jealousy  is  a  horrid  passion.  It  had  never 
occurred  to  Eve  Darling  that  she  was  or  ever 
could  be  jealous  of  anybody.  And  she  wasn't — 
exactly.  But  seeing  her  sisters  always  cavaliered 
by  attractive  men  and  slipping  casually  into 
thrilling  and  even  dangerous  adventures  with 
them  disturbed  the  depths  of  her  equanimity. 
It  was  delightful,  of  course,  to  be  made  much  of 
by  Arthur  and  to  go  upon  excursions  with  him 

232 


The  Seven  Darlings 

as  of  old.  But  something  was  wanting.  Arthur's 
idea  of  a  pleasant  day  in  the  woods  was  to  sit 
for  hours  by  a  pool  and  attempt  to  classify  the 
croaks  of  frogs,  or  to  lie  upon  his  back  in  the  sun 
and  think  about  the  girl  in  far-off  China  whom 
he  loved  so  hopelessly. 

Thanks  to  her  excellent  subordinate,  and  to 
her  own  administrative  ability,  Laundry  House 
made  fewer  and  fewer  encroachments  upon 
Eve's  leisure.  And  often  she  found  that  time 
was  hanging  upon  her  hands  with  great  heaviness. 
Memory  reminded  her  that  things  had  not  al- 
ways been  thus;  for  there  are  men  in  this  world 
who  think  that  she  was  the  most  beautiful  of  all 
the  Darlings. 

It  was  curious  that  of  all  the  men  who  ha 
come  to  The  Camp,  Mr.  Bob  Jonstone  had  th 
most  attraction  for  her.  They  had  not  spoken 
half  a  dozen  times,  and  it  was  quite  obvious  that 
his  mind,  if  not  his  heart,  was  wholly  occupied 
with  Maud.  Wherever  you  saw  Maud,  you  could 
be  pretty  sure  that  the  Carolinians,  hunting  in  a 
couple,  were  not  far  off.  Of  the  two,x  Colonel 
Meredith  was  the  more  brilliant,  the  more  showy, 
and  the  better-looking.  Added  to  his  good 
breeding  and  lazy,  pleasant  voice  were  certain 
Yankee  qualities — a  total  lack  of  gullibility,  a 

233 


The  Seven  Darlings 

certain  trace  of  mockery,  even  upon  serious  sub- 
jects. Mr.  Jonstone,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a 
perfect  lamb  of  earnestness  and  sincerity.  If  he 
heard  of  an  injustice  his  eyes  flamed,  or  if  he 
listened  to  the  recital  of  some  pathetic  happening 
they  misted  over.  Once  beyond  the  direct  in- 
fluence of  his  cousin  there  was  neither  mischief 
in  him  nor  devilment.  It  was  for  this  reason,  and 
in  this  knowledge,  that  he  had  put  his  newly  ac- 
quired moneys  in  trust  for  himself. 

In  the  little  house  by  the  lake  where  the  cousins 
still  slept,  conversation  seldom  flagged  before  one 
or  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Having  said  good- 
night to  each  other  at  about  eleven,  one  or  the 
other  was  pretty  sure  to  let  out  some  new  dis- 
covery about  the  Darlings  in  general  and  Maud 
Darling  in  particular,  and  then  all  desire  for  sleep 
vanished  and  their  real  cousinly  confidences  began. 

But  these  confidences  had  their  limits,  for 
neither  confessed  to  being  sentimentally  inter- 
.  ested  in  the  young  lady,  whereas,  within  limits, 
they  both  were.  And  each  enjoyed  the  satisfac- 
tion of  believing  (quite  erroneously)  that  he  de- 
ceived the  other.  I  do  not  wish  to  convey  the 
impression  that  they  were  actually  in  love  with 
her. 

When  you  are  really  in  love,  you  are  also  in 
234 


The  Seven  Darlings 

love  before  breakfast.  That  is  the  final  test.  And 
when  love  begins  to  die,  that  is  the  time  when  its 
weakening  pulse  is  first  to  be  concerned.  What 
honest  man  has  not  been  mad  about  some  pretty 
girl  (in  a  crescendo  of  madness)  from  tea  time  till 
sleep  time  and  waked  in  the  morning  with  no 
thought  but  for  toast  and  coffee  the  soonest  pos- 
sible ?  and  gone  about  the  business  of  the  morn- 
ing and  early  afternoon  almost  heart-whole  and 
fancy-free,  and  relapsed  once  more  into  madness 
with  the  lengthening  of  the  shadows  ?  A  man 
who  proposes  marriage  to  a  girl  until  he  has  been 
in  love  with  her  for  twenty-four  consecutive 
hours  is  a  light  fellow  who  ought  to  be  kicked  out 
of  the  house  by  her  papa.  As  for  the  girl,  let  her 
be  sure  that  he  is  bread  and  meat  to  her,  comfort 
and  rest,  demigod  and  man,  wholly  necessary 
and  not  to  be  duplicated  in  this  world,  before  she 
even  says  that  she  will  think  about  it. 

In  the  early  morning  there  would  arise  in  the 
house  of  the  Carolinians  the  sounds  of  whistling, 
of  singing,  laughter,  scuffling,  and  running  water. 
So  that  a  girl  who  really  wanted  either  of  them 
must,  in  listening,  have  despaired. 

As  for  Maud  Darling,  she  was  disgusted  with 
herself — theoretically.  But  practically  she  was 
having  the  time  of  her  life.  In  theory,  she  felt 

235 


The  Seven  Darlings 

that  no  self-respecting  girl  ought  to  be  unable  to 
decide  which  of  the  two  young  men  she  liked  the 
better.  In  practice,  she  found  a  constant  ponder- 
ing of  this  delicate  question  to  be  delightful.  It 
was  very  comfortable  to  know  that  the  moment 
she  was  free  to  play  there  were  two  pleasant  com- 
panions ready  and  waiting. 

Sentiment  and  gayety  attended  their  goings 
and  comings.  The  Carolinians,  fortified  by  each 
other's  presence,  were  veritable  Raleighs  of  ex- 
travagant devotion.  In  engineering,  for  instance, 
so  that  Maud  should  not  have  to  step  in  a  damp 
place,  there  were  displayed  enough  gallantry  and 
efficiency  to  have  saved  her  from  an  onslaught  of 
tigers.  If  the  trio  climbed  a  mountain,  Maud 
gave  herself  up  to  the  heart-warming  delight  of 
being  helped  when  help  was  not  in  the  least  neces- 
sary. In  short,  she  behaved  as  any  natural 
young  woman  would,  and  should.  She  flirted 
outrageously.  But  in  the  depths  of  her  heart  a 
genuine  friendship  for  the  Carolinians  was  con- 
ceived and  grew  in  breadth  and  strength.  What 
if  they  did  out-gallant  gallantry  ? 


236 


XXV 

ONE  Sunday,  Eve,  from  her  window — she 
was  rather  a  lazy  girl  that  Sunday — wit- 
nessed the  following  departures  from  the  camp. 
Sam  Langham  and  Mary  in  a  guide  boat,  with 
fishing-tackle  and  an  immense  hamper  which 
looked  like  lunch.  Herring  and  Phyllis  could  be 
seen  hoisting  the  sails  on  the  knockabout.  Herring 
had  never  sailed  a  boat  and  was  prepared  to  mas- 
ter that  simple  art  at  once.  Lee  and  Renier  were 
girt  for  the  mountain.  Renier  appeared  to  have 
a  Flobert  rifle  in  semihiding  under  his  coat,  and 
it  was  to  be  feared  that  if  he  saw  a  partridge,  he 
would  open  fire  on  it,  close  season  though  it  was. 
He  and  Lee  would  justify  this  illegal  act  by  cook- 
ing the  bird  for  their  lunch.  Gay  commandeered 
the  Streak  and  departed  at  high  speed  toward 
Carrytown.  She  had  in  one  hand  a  sheet  of  blue- 
striped  paper,  folded.  It  resembled  a  cablegram. 
And  Eve  thought  that  it  must  be  of  a  very  pri- 
vate nature,  or  else  Gay  would  have  telephoned 
it  to  the  Western  Union  office,  instead  of  carrying 
it  by  hand.  The  next  to  depart  from  the  camp 

237 


The  Seven  Darlings 

was  Arthur.  He  moved  dreamily  in  a  north- 
westerly direction,  accompanied  by  Uncas,  the 
chipmunk,  and  Wow,  the  dog.  Other  guests  made 
departures. 

All  of  which  Eve,  half  dressed  and  looking 
lazily  from  her  window,  lazily  noted,  remarking 
that  for  her  Sunday  was  a  day  of  rest  and  that 
she  thanked  Heaven  for  it.  And  she  did  not  feel 
any  differently  until  Maud  and  the  Carolinians 
walked  out  on  the  float  and  began  to  pack  a 
guide  boat  for  the  day. 

Then  her  lazy,  complacent  feelings  departed, 
and  were  succeeded  by  a  sudden,  wide-awake 
surge  of  self-pity.  She  felt  like  Cinderella.  No- 
body had  asked  her  to  go  anywhere  or  do  any- 
thing, and  nobody  had  even  thought  of  doing 
so.  When  she  was  dead  they  would  gather  round 
her  coffin  and  remember  that  they  hadn't  asked 
her  to  go  anywhere  or  do  anything,  and  they 
would  be  very  sorry  and  ashamed  and  they  would 
say  what  a  nice  girl  she  had  been,  and  how  she 
had  always  tried  to  give  everybody  a  good  time. 

Between  laughter  and  tears  and  mortifica- 
tion, Eve  finished  dressing,  set  her  lovely  jaw, 
and  went  out  into  the  delicious,  cool  calm  of 
the  mountain  morning.  She  could  still  hear  the 
voices  of  many  of  the  departing  ones;  and  the 

258 


She  felt  like  Cinderella.     Nobody  had  asked  her  to  go  anywhere 
or  do  anything 


The  Seven  Darlings 

rattling  and  creaking  of  the  knockabout's  blocks 
and  rigging.  She  heard  Herring  say  to  Phyllis: 
"I  think  it  would  be  better  if  I  could  make  the 
boom  go  out  on  this  side,  but  I  can't."  Phyllis's 
answer  was  a  cool,  contented  laugh.  It  was  as  if 
she  said:  "Hang  the  boom!  Were  here!" 

Have  you  ever  had  the  feeling  that  you  would 
like  to  board  a  swift  boat,  head  for  the  open  sea, 
and  never  come  back  ?  Or  that  you  could  plunge 
into  some  boundless,  trackless  forest  and  keep 
straight  on  until  you  were  lost,  and  died  (beauti- 
fully and  painlessly),  and  were  covered  with  beau- 
tiful leaves  by  little  birds  ? 

Eve  enjoyed  (and  suffered  from)  a  hint  of 
this  latter  feeling.  She  ate  a  light  breakfast  (it 
would  be  better  not  to  begin  starving  till  she  was 
actually  lost  in  the  boundless,  trackless  forest), 
selected  a  light,  spiked  climbing-stick  with  a 
crooked  handle,  headed  for  one  of  the  north- 
easterly mountains,  and  was  soon  deep  in  the 
shade  of  the  pines  and  hemlocks. 

After  a  few  miles,  the  trail  that  she  followed 
split  and  scattered  in  many  directions,  like  the 
end  of  an  unravelled  rope.  She  followed  an  old 
lumber  road  for  a  long  way,  turned  into  another 
that  crossed  it  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees, 
took  no  account  of  the  sun's  position  in  the  heavens 

239 


The  Seven  Darlings 

or  of  the  marked  sides  of  trees.  If  she  came  to 
a  high  place  from  which  there  was  a  view,  she  did 
not  look  at  it.  She  just  kept  going — this  way 
and  that,  up  and  down.  In  short,  she  made  a 
conscious,  anxious  effort  to  lose  herself.  The 
easterly  mountain  toward  which  she  had  first 
headed  kept  bobbing  up  straight  ahead.  And  al- 
ways there  was  the  knowledge  in  the  back  of  her 
head  of  the  exact  location  of  The  Camp,  and  of 
all  the  other  landmarks,  familiar  to  her  since  early 
youth. 

"Drag  it!"  she  said,  at  length,  her  eyes  on  the 
mountain.  "I'll  climb  the  old  thing,  put  melan- 
choly aside,  and  call  this  a  good,  if  unaccompanied, 
Sunday." 

The  morning  coolness  had  departed.  It  was 
one  of  those  hot,  breathless,  mountain  forenoons 
that  kill  the  appetite  and  are  usually  followed, 
toward  the  late  afternoon,  by  violent  electrical 
disturbances. 

Eve  was  not  as  fit  as  she  had  supposed,  or  as 
she  thought.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  she  was  setting 
too  fast  a  pace,  considering  the  weather  and  the 
angle  of  the  mountain  slope;  and  she  was  as  wet 
as  if  she  had  played  several  hard  sets  of  tennis 
with  a  partner  who  stood  in  one  corner  of  the  court 
and  let  her  do  all  the  running. 

240 


The  Seven  Darlings 

As  she  climbed,  reproaching  her  wind  for  being 
so  short,  she  remembered  that  the  hollow  tip 
of  this  particular  northeastern  mountain  was  filled 
with  a  deep  pool  of  water.  Nobody  had  ever 
called  it  a  lake.  The  map  called  it  a  pond;  but 
it  wasn't  even  that — it  was  a  pool.  Springs  fed 
it  just  fast  enough  to  make  up  for  the  evapora- 
tion. It  had  no  outlet.  It  was  shaped  like  a  fat 
letter  O.  At  one  end  was  a  little  beach  of  white 
sand.  Indeed,  the  bottom  of  the  pool  was  all  firm, 
smooth,  and  clean,  and  the  whole  charming  little 
body  of  water  was  surrounded  by  thick  groves  of 
dwarf  mountain  trees  and  bushes.  Not  content 
with  being  a  perfect  replica,  in  miniature,  of  a  full- 
grown  Adirondack  lake,  this  pool  had  in  its  midst  an 
island,  a  dozen  feet  in  diameter,  densely  shrubbed 
and  shaded  by  one  diminutive  Japanesque  pine. 

When  Eve  came  to  the  pool,  hot,  tired,  and 
rather  bothered  at  the  thought  of  the  long  walk 
back  to  camp,  she  had  but  the  vaguest  idea  of 
just  why  the  Lord  had  placed  such  a  pool  on  top 
of  a  mountain,  impelled  her  to  climb  that  moun- 
tain, and  made  the  day  so  piping  hot. 

Eve  stood  a  little  on  the  sand  beach.  She  felt 
hotter  and  hotter,  and  the  pool  looked  cooler  and 
cooler.  Presently,  a  heavenly  smile  of  solution 
brightened  her  flushed,  warm  face,  and  she  with- 

241 


The  Seven  Darlings 

drew  into  a  shady  clump  of  bushes.  From  this 
there  came  first  the  exclamation  "Drag  it !"  then 
a  sound  of  some  sort  of  a  string  being  sharply 
broken  in  two,  and  then  there  came  from  the  clump 
of  bushes  Eve  herself,  looking  for  all  the  world  like 
a  slice  of  the  silver  moon. 

And  as  you  may  have  seen  the  silver  moon  slip 
slowly  into  the  sea,  so  Eve  vanished  slowly  into  the 
pool — all  but  her  shapely  little  round  head,  with 
its  crisp  bright-brown  hair  and  its  lovely  face, 
happy  now,  exhilarated,  and  eager  as  are  the  faces 
of  adventurers. 

And  Eve  thought  if  one  didn't  have  to  eat,  if 
one  didn't  end  by  being  cold,  if  one  could  make 
time  stand  still — she  would  choose  to  be  always 
and  forever  a  slice  of  the  silver  moon,  lolling  in  a 
mountain  pool. 

She  had  the  kind  of  hair  that  wets  to  per- 
fection. But  it  was  not  the  sort  of  permanent 
wave  which  lasts  six  months  or  so,  costs  twenty- 
five  dollars,  and  is  inculcated  by  hours  of  alternate 
baking  and  shampooing.  Eve  had  always  had  a 
permanent  wave.  She  feared  neither  fog  nor  rain, 
nor  water  in  any  form  of  application.  And  so  it 
was  that,  now  and  then,  as  she  lolled  about  the 
pool,  she  disappeared  from  one  fortunate  square 
yard  of  surface  and  reappeared  in  another. 

242 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Half  an  hour  had  passed,  when  suddenly  the 
mountain  stillness  was  broken  by  men's  voices. 

Eve  was  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  pool  from 
where  she  had  left  her  clothes.  Between  her  and 
the  approaching  voices  was  the  little  island.  She 
landed  hastily  upon  this  and  hid  herself  among 
the  bushes. 

Three  gross,  fat  men  and  one  long,  lean  man, 
with  a  face  like  leather  and  an  Adam's  apple 
that  bobbed  like  a  fisherman's  float,  came  down 
to  the  beach,  sweating  terribly,  and  cast  there- 
on knapsacks,  picnic  baskets,  hatchets,  fishing- 
tackle,  and  all  the  complicated  paraphernalia  of 
amateurs  about  to  cook  their  own  lunch  in  the 
woods. 

All  but  one  had  loud,  coarse,  carrying  voices, 
and  they  all  appeared  to  belong  to  the  ruling  class. 
They  appeared,  in  short,  to  have  neither  edu- 
cation nor  refinement  nor  charm  nor  anything  to 
commend  them  as  leaders  or  examples.  Eve  won- 
dered how  it  was  possible  for  them  to  find  pleasure 
even  in  each  other's  company.  They  quarrelled, 
wrangled,  found  fault,  abused  each  other,  or  sud- 
denly forgot  their  differences,  gathering  about 
the  fattest  of  the  fat  men  and  listening,  almost 
reverently,  while  he  told  a  story.  When  he  had 
finished,  they  would  throw  their  heads  far  back 

243 


The  Seven  Darlings 

and  scream  with  laughter.  He  must  have  told 
wonderfully  funny  stories;  but  his  voice  was  no 
more  than  a  husky  whisper,  so  that  Eve  could  not 
make  head  or  tail  of  them. 

After  a  while  the  whispering  fat  man  pro- 
duced from  one  of  the  baskets  four  little  glasses 
and  a  fat  dark  bottle.  And  shortly  after  there 
was  less  wrangling  and  more  laughter. 

The  thin  man  with  the  leathery  face  and  the 
bobbing  Adam's  apple  put  a  fishing-rod  together, 
tied  a  couple  of  gaudy  flies  to  his  leader,  and 
began  to  cast  most  unskilfully  from  the  shores 
of  the  pool,  moving  along  slowly  from  time  to 
time. 

The  fat  men,  occasionally  calling  to  ask  if  he 
had  caught  anything,  busied  .  themselves  with 
preparations  for  lunch.  One  of  them  made 
tremendous  chopping  sounds  in  the  wood  and 
furnished  from  time  to  time  incommensurate 
supplies  of  fire-wood.  Smoke  arose  and  a  kettle 
was  slung. 

Meanwhile  Eve,  cowering  among  the  bushes, 
for  all  the  world  like  her  famous  ancestress  when 
the  angel  came  to  the  garden,  did  not  quite  know 
what  to  do.  She  had  only  to  lift  her  voice  and 
explain,  and  the  men  would  go  away  for  a  time. 
She  felt  sure  of  that.  She  had  been  brought  up 

244 


Eve  was  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  pool  from  where  she  had  left 
her  clothes 


The  Seven  Darlings 

to  believe  in  the  exquisite  chivalry  of  the  plain 
American  man. 

But  there  was  something  about  the  four  which 
repelled  her,  which  stuck  in  her  throat.  She 
did  not  wish  to  be  under  any  sort  of  obligation  to 
any  of  them.  And  so  she  kept  mousy-quiet,  and 
turned  over  in  her  mind  an  immense  number  of 
worthless  stratagems  and  expedients. 

Have  you  ever  tried  to  lie  on  the  lawn  under 
a  tree  and  read  for  an  hour  or  two — incased  in 
all  your  buffer  of  clothes  ?  Try  it  some  time — 
without  the  buffers.  Try  it  in  the  buff.  And 
then  imagine  how  comfortable  Eve  was  on  the 
island.  Imagine  how  soft  it  felt  to  her  elbows,  for 
instance.  And  imagine  to  yourself,  too,  that  it  was 
not  an  uninhabited  island — but  one  upon  which 
an  immense  gray  spider  had  made  a  home  and 
raised  a  family. 

From  time  to  time  the  inept  caster  of  flies 
returned  to  the  camp-fire,  always  in  answer  to 
a  boisterous  summons  from  his  friends.  And 
after  each  visit,  his  leathery  face  became  redder 
and  his  casting  more  absurd. 

Finally  his  flies  caught  in  a  tree,  his  rod  broke, 
and  he  abandoned  the  gentle  art  of  angling  for 
that  time  and  place.  Meanwhile  steam  ran  from 
the  kettle  and  mingled  with  the  smoke  of  the 

24*; 


The  Seven  Darlings 

fire.  The  sound  of  voices  was  incessant.  Ten 
minutes  later  the  gentlemen  were  served. 

Midway  of  the  meal,  some  of  which  was  burnt 
black  and  some  of  which  was  quite  raw,  there 
was  produced  a  thermos  bottle  as  big  as  the  leg 
of  a  rubber  boot.  And  a  moment  later,  icy-cold 
champagne  was  frothing  and  bubbling  in  tumblers. 

In  that  high  air,  upon  a  thick  foundation  of 
raw  whiskey,  the  brilliant  wine  of  France  had 
soon  built  a  triumphant  edifice,  so  that  Eve, 
cold  now,  miserable,  and  frightened,  felt  that 
the  time  for  an  appeal  to  chivalry  was  long  since 
past. 

Far  from  their  wives  and  constituents,  the  four 
politicians  were  obviously  not  going  to  stop  short 
of  complete  drunkenness.  Indeed,  it  was  an  op- 
portunity hardly  to  be  missed.  For  where  else 
in  the  woods  could  nature  be  more  exquisite, 
dignified,  and  inspiring  ? 

It  got  so  that  Eve  could  no  longer  bear  to 
watch  them  or  to  listen  to  them.  Pink  with 
shame,  fury,  hatred,  and  fear,  she  stuffed  her 
fingers  in  her  ears  and  hid  her  face. 

Thus  lying,  there  came  to  her  after  quite  a 
long  interval,  dimly,  a  shout  and  a  howl  of  laughter 
with  an  entirely  new  intonation.  She  looked  up 
then  and  saw  the  thin  man,  waist-deep  in  the 

246 


The  Seven  Darlings 

bushes,  just  where  she  had  left  her  clothes,  mak- 
ing faces  of  beastly  mystery  at  his  companions, 
beckoning  to  them  and  urging  them  to  come  look. 
They  went  to  him,  presently,  staggering  and  evil. 
And  then  they  scattered  and  began  to  hunt  for 
her. 


247 


XXVI 

TIRED?"  queried  Mr.  Bob  Jonstone,  with 
some  indignation.  "I'm  not  a  bit  tired. 
I  haven't  had  enough  exercise  to  keep  me  quiet. 
And  if  it  wasn't  your  turn  to  make  the  fire,  your 
privilege,  and  your  prerogative,  I'd  insist  on 
chopping  the  wood  myself.  No,"  he  said,  lean- 
ing back  luxuriously,  "I  find  it  very  hard  to  keep 
still.  This  walking  on  the  level  is  child's  play. 
What  I  need  to  keep  me  in  good  shape  is  moun- 
tains to  climb." 

"Like  those  we  have  at  home,"  said  Colonel 
Meredith,  and  if  he  didn't  actually  wink  at  Maud, 
who  was  arranging  some  chops  on  a  broiler,  he 
made  one  eye  smaller  than  the  other. 

"What's  wrong  with  this  mountain?"  asked 
Maud. 

"Why,  we  are  only  half-way  up,  and  the  real 
view  is  from  the  top !" 

"Of  course,"  said  Colonel  Meredith,  "if  you 
want  to  see  the  view,  don't  let  us  stop  you.  We'll 
wait  for  you.  Won't  we,  Miss  Maud  ?" 

She  nodded,  her  eyes  shining  with  mischief. 
248 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"But,"  the  colonel  continued,  "Bob  is  a  bluff. 
He's  had  all  the  climbing  he  can  stand.  Noth- 
ing but  a  chest  full  of  treasure  or  a  maiden  in 
distress  would  take  him  a  step  farther." 

"After  lunch,"  said  Mr.  Jonstone,  "I  shall" 

"  Do  it  now !  Lunch  won't  be  ready  for  an 
hour.  Any  kind  of  a  walker  could  make  the  top 
of  the  mountain  and  be  back  in  that  time.  But 
I'll  bet  you  anything  you  like  that  you  can't." 

"You  will  ?     I'll  bet  you  fifty  dollars." 

"Done!" 

Mr.  Jonstone  leaped  to  his  feet  in  a  business- 
like way,  waved  his  hand  to  them,  and  started 
briskly  off  and  up  along  the  trail  by  which  they 
had  come,  and  which  ended  only  at  the  very  top 
of  the  mountain.  It  wasn't  that  he  wanted  any 
more  exercise.  He  wanted  to  get  away  for  a 
while  to  think  things  over.  He  had  learned  on 
that  day's  excursion,  or  thought  he  had,  that  two 
is  company  and  that  three  isn't.  The  pleasant 
interchangeableness  of  the  trio's  relations  seemed 
suddenly  to  have  undergone  a  subtle  change.  It 
was  as  if  Maud  and  Colonel  Meredith  had  sud- 
denly found  that  they  liked  each  other  a  little 
better  than  they  liked  him. 

So  it  wasn't  a  man  in  search  of  exercise  or 
eager  to  win  a  bet  who  was  hastening  toward  the 

249 


The  Seven  Darlings 

top  of  a  mountain,  but  a  child  who  had  just 
discovered  that  dolls  are  stuffed  with  sawdust. 
He  suffered  a  little  from  jealousy,  and  a  little 
from  anger.  He  could  not  have  specified  what 
they  had  done  to  him  that  morning,  and  it  may 
have  been  his  imagination  alone  that  was  to 
blame,  but  they  had  made  him  feel,  or  he  had 
made  himself  feel,  like  a  guest  who  is  present,  not 
because  he  is  wanted  but  because  for  some  reason 
or  other  he  had  to  be  asked. 

He  walked  himself  completely  out  of  breath 
and  that  did  his  mind  good.  Resting  before 
making  a  final  spurt  to  the  mountain-top,  he 
heard  men's  voices  shouting  and  hallooing  in  the 
forest.  The  sounds  carried  him  back  to  certain 
coon  and  rabbit  hunts  in  his  native  State,  and  he 
wondered  what  these  men  could  be  hunting.  And 
having  recovered  his  breath,  he  went  on. 

He  came  suddenly  in  view  of  a  great  round 
pool  of  water  in  the  midst  of  which  was  a  tiny 
island,  thickly  wooded.  Just  in  front  of  him  a 
fire  burned  low  on  a  beach  of  white  sand. 

Upon  the  beach,  his  back  to  Jonstone,  stood  a 
tall,  thin  man  who  appeared  to  be  gazing  at  the 
island.  Suddenly  this  man  began  to  shout  aloud: 

"She's  on  the  island  !    She's  on  the  island  !" 

From  the  woods  came  the  sound  of  crashings. 
250 


The  Seven  Darlings 

scramblings,  and  oaths,  and,  one  by  one,  three 
fat  men,  very  sweaty  and  crimson  in  the  face, 
came  reeling  out  on  the  beach,  and  ranged  them- 
selves with  the  thin  man,  and  looked  drunkenly 
toward  the  island. 

"She's  hiding  on  the  island,  the  cute  thing," 
said  the  thin  man. 

"Did  you  see  her?" 

"I  saw  the  bushes  move.     That's  where  she  is." 

"How  deep's  the  water?" 

"I'll  tell  you  in  about  a  minute,"  said  the  thin 
man.  He  threw  his  coat  from  him,  and,  sitting 
down  with  a  sudden  lurch,  began  to  unlace  his 
boots. 

"Maybe  you  don't  know  it,"  he  said,  "but  I'm 
some  swimmer,  I  am." 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence  and  then  there 
came  from  the  island  a  voice  that  sent  a  thrill 
through  Mr.  Bob  Jonstone  from  head  to  foot. 
The  voice  was  like  frightened  music  with  a  sob  in  it. 

"Won't  you  please  go  away!" 

"Good  God,"  he  thought,  "they're  hunting  a 
woman !" 

The  drunken  men  had  answered  that  sobbing 
appeal  with  a  regular  view-halloo  of  drunken 
laughter. 

Mr.  Bob  Jonstone  stepped  slowly  forward.  His 
251 


The  Seven  Darlings 

thin  face  had  a  bluish,  steely  look;  and  his  eyes 
glinted  wickedly  like  a  rattlesnake's.  Being  one 
against  four,  he  made  no  declaration  of  war.  He 
came  upon  them  secretly  from  behind.  And  first 
he  struck  a  thin  neck  just  below  a  leathery  ear, 
and  then  a  fat  neck. 

He  was  not  a  strong  man  physically.  But 
high-strung  nerves  and  cold,  collected  loathing 
and  fury  are  powerful  weapons. 

The  thin  man  and  the  fat  man  with  the  whisper- 
ing voice  lay  face  down  on  the  beach  and  passed 
from  insensibility  into  stupefied,  drunken  sleep. 
But  with  the  other  two,  Mr.  Jonstone  had  a  bad 
time  of  it,  for  he  had  broken  a  bone  in  his  right 
hand  and  the  pain  was  excruciating.  Often,  dur- 
ing that  battle,  he  thought  of  the  deadly  auto- 
matic in  his  pocket.  But  if  he  used  that,  it  meant 
that  a  woman's  name  would  be  printed  in  the 
newspaper. 

The  fat  men  fought  hard  with  drunken  fury. 
Their  strength  was  their  weight,  and  they  were 
always  coming  at  him  from  opposite  sides.  But 
an  empty  whiskey  bottle  caught  Mr.  Jonstone's 
swift  eye  and  made  a  sudden  end  of  what  its 
contents  had  begun.  He  hit  five  times  and  then 
stood  alone,  among  the  fallen,  a  bottle  neck  of 
brown  glass  in  his  hand. 

252 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Then  he  lifted  his  voice  and  spoke  aloud,  as  if 
to  the  island: 

"They'll  not  trouble  you  now.  What  else 
can  I  do?" 

"God  bless  you  for  doing  what  you've  done! 
I'm  a  fool  girl,  and  I  thought  I  was  all  alone  and 
I  went  in  swimming,  and  they  came  and  I  hid 
on  the  island.  And  I — I  haven't  got  my  things 
with  me !" 

"Couldn't  you  get  ashore  without  being  seen? 
These  beasts  won't  look.  And  I  won't  look. 
You  can  trust  me,  can't  you?" 

"When  you  tell  me  that  nobody  is  looking  I'll 
come  ashore." 

"Nobody  is  looking  now." 

He  heard  a  splash  and  sounds  as  of  strong 
swimming.  And  he  was  dying  to  look.  He  took 
out  his  little  automatic  and  cocked  it,  and  he  said 
to  himself:  "If  you  do  look,  Bob,  you  get  shot." 

Ten  minutes  passed. 

"Are  you  all  right  ?"  he  called. 

"Yes,  thank  you,  all  right  now.  But  how  can 
I  thank  you  ?  I  don't  want  you  to  see  me,  if  you 
don't  mind.  I  don't  want  you  to  know  who  I 
am.  But  I'm  the  gratefulest  girl  that  ever  lived; 
and  I'm  going  home  now,  wiser  than  when  I 

came,  and,  listen " 

253 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I'm  listening." 

"I  think  I'd  almost  die  for  you.    There!" 
Mr.  Jonstone's  hair  fairly  bristled  with  emotion. 
"But  am  I  never  to  see  you,  never  to  know 
your  name?" 

The  answer  came  from  farther  off. 
"Yes,  I  think  so.     Some  time." 
"Do  you  promise  that?" 
Silence — and  then: 
"I  almost  promise." 


Having  assured  himself  that  the  drunken  men 
were  not  dead,  Mr.  Jonstone  sighed  like  a  furnace 
and  started  down  the  mountain. 

His  hand  hurt  him  like  the  devil,  but  the  pain 
was  first  cousin  to  delight. 


254 


XXVII 

THE  Camp  was  much  concerned  to  hear  of 
poor  Mr.  Jonstone's  accident.  A  round 
stone,  he  said,  had  rolled  suddenly  under  his 
foot  and  precipitated  him  down  a  steep  pitch  of 
path.  He  had  put  out  his  hands  to  save  his  face 
and,  it  seemed,  broken  a  bone  in  one  of  them. 
And  at  that,  the  attempted  rescue  of  his  face 
had  not  been  an  overwhelming  success. 

It  was  not  until  the  doctor  had  come  and  gone 
that  Mr.  Jonstone  told  his  cousin  what  had  really 
happened.  Colonel  Meredith  was  much  excited 
and  intrigued  by  the  narrative. 

"And  you've  no  idea  who  she  was  ?"  he  asked. 

"No,  Mel;  I've  thought  that  the  voice  was 
familiar.  I've  thought  that  it  wasn't.  It  was  a 
very  well-bred  Northern  voice — but  agitated 
probably  out  of  its  natural  intonations.  Voices 
are  queer  things.  A  man  might  not  recognize 
his  own  mother's  voice  at  a  time  when  he  was  not 
expecting  to  hear  it." 

"Voices,"  said  Colonel  Meredith,  "are  beauti- 
ful things.  This  wasn't  a  motherly  sort  of  voice, 
was  it?" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"But  it  might  be,'*  said  Mr.  Jonstone  gently. 
"I  wonder  if  they've  anything  in  this  place  to 
make  a  fellow  sleep.  Bromide  isn't  much  good 
when  you've  a  sure-enough  sharp  pain." 

"You  feel  mighty  uncomfortable,  don't  you, 
Bob?" 

The  invalid  nodded.  He  was  pale  as  a  sheet, 
and  he  could  not  keep  still.  He  had  received 
considerable  physical  punishment  and  his  entire 
nervous  system  was  quivering  and  jumping. 

"I'll  see  if  anybody's  got  anything,"  said 
Colonel  Meredith,  and  he  went  straight  to  the 
office,  where  he  found  Maud  Darling  and  Eve. 

"My  cousin  is  feeling  like  the  deuce,"  he  said. 
"He  won't  sleep  all  night  if  we  don't  give  him 
something  to  make  him.  Do  you  know  of  any 
one  that's  got  anything  of  that  sort — morphine, 
for  instance?" 

"The  best  thing  will  be  to  take  the  Streak  and 
get  some  from  the  doctor,"  said  Maud.  "Let's 
all  go." 

"I  think  I  won't,"  said  Eve,  looking  wonder- 
fuuy  cool  and  serene.  "But  I'll  walk  down  to 
the  float  and  see  you  off.  What  a  pity  for  a  man 
to  get  laid  up  by  an  accident  that  might  have 
been  avoided  by  a  little  attention!" 

Colonel  Meredith  stiffened. 
256 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  am  sorry  to  contradict  a  lady,"  he  said, 
"but  my  cousin  has  given  me  the  particulars  of 
his  accident,  and  it  was  of  a  nature  that  could 
hardly  have  been  avoided  by  a  man.  I  think, 
Miss  Maud,  if  you  will  order  a  launch,  I  had  better 
tell  my  cousin  where  I  am  going,  in  case  he  should 
feel  that  he  was  being  neglected." 

"Don't  bother  to  do  that,"  said  Eve.  "I'll 
get  word  to  him." 

"Oh,  thank  you  so  much,  will  you  ?" 

"He's  lying  down,  I  suppose." 

"Yes;  he  has  retired  for  the  night." 

"I'll  send  one  of  the  men,"  said  Eve,  "or  Sam 
Langham." 

So  they  went  one  way  and  Eve  went  the  other, 
walking  very  quickly  and  smiling  in  the  night. 

"Mr.  Jonstone — oh,  Mr.  Jonstone !  Can  you 
hear  me  ?" 

With  a  sort  of  shudder  of  wonder  Mr.  Jon- 
stone sat  up  in  his  bed. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "I  do  hear  you — unless  I  am 
dreaming." 

"You're  not  dreaming.  You  are  in  great  pain, 
owing  to  an  accident  which  could  hardly  have 
been  avoided  by  a  man,  and  can't  sleep." 

"I  am  in  no  pain  now." 

"Colonel  Meredith  has  gone  to  Carry  town  for 
257 


The  Seven  Darlings 

something  to  make  you  sleep,  so  you  aren't  to 
fret  and  feel  neglected  if  he  doesn't  come  back 
to  you  at  once." 

"Just  the  same  it's  a  horrible  feeling — to  be 
all  alone." 

"But  if  some  one — any  one  were  to  stay  within 
call ?" 

"If  you  were  to  stay  within  call  it  would  make 
all  the  difference  in  the  world." 

"You  don't  know  who  I  am,  do  you  ?" 

"I  don't  know  what  you  look  like,  and  I  don't 
know  your  name.  But  I  know  who  you  are. 
And  once  upon  a  time — long  years  ago — you 
promised,  you  half  promised,  to  tell  me  the  other 
things." 

"My  name  is  a  very,  very  old  name,  and  I  look 
like  a  lot  of  other  people.  But  you  say  you  know 
who  I  am.  Who  am  I  ?" 

Mr.  Bob  Jonstone  laughed  softly. 

"It's  enough,"  said  he,  "that  I  know.  But 
are  you  comfortable  out  there  ?  You're  on  the 
porch,  aren't  you?" 

"No;  I'm  standing  on  the  ground  and  resting 
my  lazy  forehead  against  the  porch  railing." 

"I'd  feel  easier  if  you  came  on  the  porch  and 
made  yourself  comfortable  in  a  chair,  just  out- 
side my  window.  And  we  could  talk  easier." 

258 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"But  you're  not  supposed  to  talk." 

"Listening  would  be  good  for  me." 

There  was  a  sound  of  light  steps  and  of  a  chair 
being  dragged. 

"I  wish  you  wouldn't  sit  just  round  the  cor- 
ner," said  Mr.  Jonstone  presently.  "If  you  sat 
before  the  window,  sideways,  I  could  see  your 
profile  against  the  sky." 

"I'm  doing  very  well  where  I  am,  thank  you." 

"But,  please,  why  shouldn't  I  see  you?  Why 
are  you  so  embarrassed  at  me?" 

"Wouldn't  you  be  embarrassed  if  you  were  a 
girl  and  had  been  through  the  adventure  I  went 
through  ?  Wouldn't  you  be  a  little  embarrassed 
to  see  the  man  who  helped  you,  and  look  him  in 
the  face?" 

"  Don't  you  ever  want  me  to  see  you  ?  Because, 
if  you  don't,  I  will  go  away  from  this  place  in 
the  morning  and  never  come  back." 

"Somehow,  that  doesn't  appeal  to  me  very 
much  either." 

"I  am  glad,"  said  Mr.  Jonstone  quietly. 

"How  does  your  hand  feel?" 

"Which  hand?" 

"The  one  you  hurt." 

"It  feels  very  happy,  and  the  other  hand  feels 
very  jealous  of  it." 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Seriously — are  you  having  a  pretty  bad  time  ?" 

"I  am  having  the  time  of  my  life — seriously — 
the  time  that  lucky  men  always  have  once  in  their 
lives." 

"Are  you  very  impatient  for  the  morphine?" 

"I  shall  not  take  it  when  it  comes.  It  is  far 
better  knowing  what  one  knows,  remembering 
what  one  remembers,  and  looking  forward  to 
what  a  presumptuous  fool  cannot  help  but  look 
forward  to — it  is  far  better  to  keep  awake;  to  lie 
peacefully  in  the  dark,  knowing,  remembering, 
and  looking  forward." 

"And  just  what  are  you  looking  forward 
to?" 

"To  a  long  life  and  a  happy  one;  to  the  sounds 
of  a  voice;  to  a  sudden  coming  to  life  of  the 
whole  'Oxford  Book  of  Verse';  to  seeing  a  face." 

There  was  a  long  silence. 

"Are  you  there?" 

"Yes;  but  you  mustn't  talk." 

"I  think  you  are  tired.  Please  don't  stay  any 
more  if  you  are  tired." 

"I'm  not  tired." 

"Then  perhaps  you  are  bored." 

"I'm  not  bored." 

"Then  what  are  you?" 

"You  keep  quiet." 

260 


The  Seven  Darlings 

When,  at  last,  Colonel  Meredith  came,  im- 
portant with  morphine  and  the  doctor's  instruc- 
tions, he  found  his  cousin  Mr.  Bob  Jonstone 
sleeping  very  quietly  and  peacefully,  a  much 
dog-eared  copy  of  the  "Oxford  Book  of  Verse" 
clasped  to  his  breast. 

Unfortunately  the  colonel,  after  putting  out 
the  light  again,  bumped  into  a  table,  and  Mr. 
Jonstone  waked. 

"That  you,  Mel?" 

"Yes,  Bob;  sorry  I  waked  you.  Did  Miss 
Darling  send  word  explaining  that  I  should  be 
quite  a  while  coming  back?" 

"Which  Miss  Darling?" 

"Which  ?    Why,  Miss  Eve." 

"Yes,  she  sent  word." 

"And  how  have  you  been  ?" 

"I  took  a  turn  for  the  better  shortly  after  you 
left.  A  little  while  ago  I  lighted  a  candle,  and 
read  a  little  and  got  sleepy.  And  now  I  think 
I'll  go  to  sleep  again." 

"You  don't  need  the  morphine?" 

"No,  Mel.    Thank  you.    Good-night." 

"Good-night." 

"Mel?" 

"What  is  it?" 

"Isn't  Eve  about  the  oldest  name  you  know?" 
261 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Oldest,  I  guess,  except  Adam  and  Lilith. 
You  go  to  sleep." 

And  Colonel  Meredith  tiptoed  out  of  the  room, 
murmuring:  "Seems  to  be  a  little  shaky  in  his 
upper  stories." ' 


262 


XXVIII 

A  POINT  of  land  just  across  the  lake  from  the 
camp  belonged  to  the  Darlings'  mother, 
the  Princess  Oducalchi.  One  night  the  light  of 
fires  and  lanterns  appeared  on  this  point  and  the 
next  morning  it  was  seen  to  be  studded  here  and 
there  with  pale-brown  tents.  The  Darlings  were 
annoyed  to  think  that  any  one  should  trespass  on 
so  large  a  scale  on  some  one  else's  land.  In  a  code 
of  laws  shot  to  pieces  with  class  legislation,  tres- 
passers are,  of  course,  exempt  from  punishment; 
their  presence  and  depredations  in  one's  private 
melon-patch  are  none  the  less  disagreeable,  and 
Arthur  Darling,  as  his  mother's  representative, 
was  peculiarly  enraged. 

Arthur,  in  his  idle  moments,  when,  for  instance, 
he  was  not  studying  the  webs  of  spiders  or  clas- 
sifying the  cries  of  frogs,  sometimes  let  his  mind 
run  on  politics  and  the  whole  state  of  the  Union. 
In  such  matters,  of  course,  he  was  only  a  tyro. 
Why  should  the  puny  and  prejudiced  population 
of  Texas  have  two  votes  in  the  Senate  when 
the  hordes  of  New  York  have  but  two  ?  Why,  in 

263 


The  Seven  Darlings 

a  popular  form  of  government,  should  the  mi- 
nority do  the  ruling  ?  Why  should  not  a  hard- 
working rich  man  have  an  equal  place  in  the  sun 
with  a  man  who,  through  laziness  and  a  moral  na- 
ture twisted  like  a  pretzel,  remains  poor  ?  Why 
should  education  be  forced  on  children  in  a  coun- 
try where  education,  which  means  good  manners 
and  the  ability  to  distinguish  between  right  and 
wrong,  amounts  practically  to  disfranchisement  ? 

Arthur,  in  his  political  ruminations,  could  never 
get  beyond  such  questions  as  these.  If  A  has 
paid  for  and  owns  a  piece  of  land,  why  is  it  not  A's 
to  enjoy,  rather  than  B's,  whose  sole  claim  thereto 
is  greater  strength  of  body  than  A,  and  the  desire 
to  possess  those  things  which  are  not  his  ? 

At  least,  Arthur  could  row  across  to  the  point  and 
protest  in  his  mother's  name.  If  the  trespassers 
were  gentlefolk  who  imagined  themselves  to  have 
camped  upon  public  land,  they  would,  of  course, 
offer  to  go  and  to  pay  all  damages — in  which  event, 
Arthur  would  invite  them  to  stay  as  long  as  they 
pleased,  only  begging  that  they  would  not  set  the 
woods  on  fire.  If,  however,  the  trespassers  be- 
longed to  one  of  the  privileged  classes  for  whose 
benefit  the  laws  are  made  and  continued,  he 
would  simply  be  abused  roundly  and  perhaps 
vilely.  He  would  then  take  a  thrashing  at  the 

264 


The  Seven  Darlings 

hands  of  superior  numbers,  and  the  incident 
would  be  closed. 

Colonel  Meredith,  seeing  Arthur  about  to  em- 
bark on  his  mission,  offered  help  and  comfort  in 
the  emergency. 

"Just  you  wait  till  I  fetch  my  rifle,"  he  said; 
"  and  if  there's  any  trifling,  we'll  shoot  them  up. " 

"Shoot  them  up!"  exclaimed  Arthur.  "If  we 
shot  them  up,  we'd  go  from  here  to  prison  and 
from  prison  to  the  electric  chair." 

"In  South  Carolina,"  Colonel  Meredith  pro- 
tested, "if  a  man  comes  on  our  land  and  we  tell 
him  to  get  off  and  he  won't,  we  drill  a  hole  in 
him." 

"And  that's  one  of  the  best  things  about  the 
South,"  said  Arthur.  "But  we  do  things  differ- 
ently in  the  North.  If  a  man  comes  on  my  land 
and  I  tell  him  to  get  off  and  he  says  he  won't, 
then  I  have  the  right  to  put  him  off,  using  as  much 
force  as  is  necessary.  And  if  he  is  twice  as  big  as 
I  am  and  there  are  three  or  four  of  him,  you  can 
see,  without  using  glasses,  how  the  matter  must 
end." 

"Then  all  you  are  out  for  is  to  take  a  licking  ?" 

"That  is  my  only  privilege  under  the  law.  But 
I  hope  I  shall  not  have  to  avail  myself  of  it. 
Where  there  are  so  many  tents  there  must  be 

265 


The  Seven  Darlings 

money.  Where  there  is  money  there  are  posses- 
sions, and  where  there  are  possessions,  there  are 
the  same  feelings  about  property  that  you  and  I 
have." 

"Still,"  said  Colonel  Meredith,  "I  wish  you'd 
take  me  along  and  our  guns.  There  is  always  the 
chance  of  managing  matters  so  that  fatalities  may 
be  construed  into  acts  of  self-defense." 

"Get  behind  me,  you  man  of  blood  !"  exclaimed 
Arthur,  laughing,  and  he  leaped  into  a  canoe,  and 
with  a  part  of  the  same  impulse  sent  it  flying  far 
out  from  the  float.  Then,  standing,  he  started 
for  the  brown  tents  with  easy,  powerful  strokes, 
very  earnest  for  the  speedy  accomplishment  of 
a  disagreeable  duty.  That  anything  really  pleas- 
ant might  come  of  his  expedition  never  entered 
his  head. 

"Arthur  gone  to  put  them  off?" 
"Why,  yes  !    Good-morning,  Miss  Gay." 
"Good-morning,    yourself,    Colonel    Meredith, 
and  many  of  them.     Want  to  look  ?" 
"Thank  you." 

Colonel  Meredith  focussed  the  glasses  upon  the 
brown  tents. 

"What  do  you  make  them  out  to  be?" 
"I  can  make  out  a  sort  of  nigger  carrying  tea 
into  one  of  the  tents.     And  there's  a  young  lady 

266 


'He's  paddling  as  if  he  expected  to  cross  a  hundred  yards  of  water  in 

a  second" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

in  black.  She  seems  to  be  walking  down  to  the 
shore  to  meet  your  brother.  And  now  she's  wav- 
ing her  hand  to  him." 

"The  impudent  thing,"  exclaimed  Gay.  "What's 
my  brother  doing?" 

"He's  paddling  as  if  he  expected  to  cross  a  hun- 
dred yards  of  water  in  a  second.  If  the  young 
lady  comes  any  closer  to  the  water,  she'll  get 
wet." 

Suddenly  blushing  crimson,  he  thrust  the  field- 
glasses  back  into  Gay's  hands,  and  cried  with  com- 
plete conviction  that  he  was  "blessed." 

In  the  bright  field  of  magnification,  hastily  fo- 
cussed  to  her  own  vision,  Gay  beheld  her  brother 
and  the  young  woman  in  black  tightly  locked  in 
each  other's  arms. 


267 


XXIX 

TO  Arthur,  half-way  across  the  lake,  con- 
sidering just  what  he  should  say  to  the  tres- 
passers, the  sudden  sight  of  the  person  whom  of 
all  persons  in  the  world  he  least  expected  and  most 
wanted  to  see  was  a  staggering  physical  shock. 
He  almost  fell  out  of  his  canoe.  And  if  he  had 
done  that  he  might  very  likely  have  drowned,  so 
paralyzing  in  effect  were  those  first  moments  of 
unbelievable  joy  and  astonishment.  Then  she 
waved  her  hand  to  him  and  swiftly  crossed  the 
beach,  and  he  began  to  paddle  like  a  madman. 
When  the  canoe  beached  with  sudden  finality, 
Arthur  simply  made  a  flying  leap  to  the  shore  and 
caught  her  in  his  arms. 

Then  he  held  her  at  arm's  length,  and  if  eyes 
could  eat,  these  would  have  been  the  last  moments 
upon  earth  of  a  very  lovely  young  woman. 

Then  a  sort  of  horror  of  what  he  had  done  and  of 
what  he  was  doing  seized  him.  His  hands  dropped 
to  his  sides  and  the  pupils  of  his  eyes  became 
pointed  with  pain.  But  she  said: 

"It's  all  right,  Arthur;  don't  look  like  that. 
My  husband  is  dead." 

26* 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Dead?"  said  Arthur,  his  face  once  more  joy- 
ous as  an  angel's.  "Thank  God  for  that!" 

And  why  not  thank  God  when  some  worthless, 
cruel  man  dies  ?  And  why  not  write  the  truth 
about  him  upon  his  tombstone  instead  of  the  con- 
ventional lies  ? 

"But  why  didn't  you  write  to  me ?"  demanded 
Arthur. 

"It  had  been  such  a  long  time  since  we  saw 
each  other.  How  did  I  know  that  you  still 
cared?" 

"But  how  could  I  stop  caring — about  you?" 

"Couldn't  you?" 

"Why,  I  didn't  even  try,"  said  Arthur.  "I  just 
gave  it  up  as  a  bad  job.  But  how,  in  the  name 
of  all  that's  good  and  blessed,  do  you  happen  to 
be  in  this  particular  place  at  this  particular  time  ? 
Did  you,  by  any  chance,  come  by  way  of  the  heav- 
ens in  a  'sweet  chariot'?  I  came  to  eject  tres- 
passers, and  I  find  you!" 

"And  I  came  to  spy  on  you,  Arthur,  and  to  find 
out  if  you  still  cared.  And  if  you  didn't,  I  was 
going  to  tie  a  stone  round  my  neck  and  lie  down 
in  the  lake.  Of  course,  if  I'm  a  trespasser " 

They  had  moved  slowly  away  from  the  shore 
toward  the  tents.  From  one  of  these  a  languid, 
humorous  voice  that  made  Arthur  start  hailed 

269 


The  Seven  Darlings 

them.  And  through  the  fly  of  the  tent  was  thrust 
a  beautiful  white  hand  and  the  half  of  a  beautiful 
white  arm. 

"I  can't  come  out,  Arthur,"  said  the  voice;  "but 
good-morning  to  you,  and  how's  the  family?" 

"Of  all  people  in  the  world,"  exclaimed  Arthur; 
"my  own  beautiful  mamma !"  And  he  sprang  to 
the  extended  hand  and  clasped  it  and  kissed  it. 

"Your  excellent  stepfather,"  said  the  voice,  "is 
out  walking  up  an  appetite  for  breakfast.  I  hope 
you  will  be  very  polite  to  him.  If  it  hadn't  been 
for  him,  Cecily  would  have  stayed  in  London, 
where  we  found  her.  He  wormed  her  secret  out 
of  her  and  brought  her  to  you  as  a  peace-offering." 

There  was  a  deep  emotion  in  Arthur's  voice  as 
he  said: 

"Then  there  shall  always  be  peace  between  us." 

The  hand  had  been  withdrawn  from  the  light  of 
day;  but  the  languid,  humorous  voice  continued 
to  make  sallies  from  the  brown  tent. 

"We  didn't  want  to  be  in  the  way;  so,  remem- 
bering this  bit  of  property,  we  just  chucked  our 
Somali  outfit  into  a  ship,  and  here  we  are !  I 
was  dreadfully  shocked  and  grieved  to  hear  that 
you  were  all  quite  broke  and  had  started  an  inn. 
In  New  York  it  is  reported  to  be  a  great  success, 
is  it?" 

270 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Why,  I  hope  so,"  said  Arthur;  "I  don't  really 
know.  Mary's  head  man.  Maud  keeps  the  books; 
the  triplets  keep  getting  into  mischief,  and  Eve, 
so  far  as  I  know,  keeps  out.  As  for  me,  I  had  an 
occupation,  but  it's  gone  now." 

"What  was  your  job,  Arthur?" 

"My  job  was  to  have  my  arm  in  imagination 
where  it  now  is  in  reality." 

"Cecily!"  exclaimed  the  voice.  "Is  that  boy 
hugging  you  publicly  ?  Am  I  absolutely  without 
influence  upon  manners  even  among  my  own 
tents?" 

"Absolutely,  Princess!"  laughed  Cecily. 

"Then  the  quicker  I  come  out  of  my  tent  the 
better!  You'll  stop  to  breakfast,  Arthur?" 

"With  pleasure,  but  shan't  I  get  word  to  the 
girls  ?  Of  course,  they  would  feel  it  their  duty  to 
call  upon  you  at  once." 

"I  should  hope  so — as  an  older  woman  I  should 
expect  that  much  of  them.  But,  princess  or  no 
princess,  I  refuse  to  stand  on  ceremony.  In  my 
most  exalted  and  aristocratic  moments  I  can 
never  forget  that  I  am  their  mother.  So  after 
breakfast  I  shall  call  on  them" 

At  this  moment,  very  tall  and  thin,  in  gray 
Scotch  tweeds,  carrying  a  very  high,  foreheady 
head,  there  emerged  from  the  forest  Prince 

271 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Oducalchi,  leading  by  the  hand  his  eight-year- 
old  son,  Andrea,  and  singing  in  a  touching,  clear 
baritone  something  in  Italian  to  the  effect  that  a 
certain  "Mariana's  roses  were  red  and  white,  in 
the  market-place  by  the  clock-tower!" 

Andrea  wore  a  bright-red  sweater,  carried  a  fine 
twenty-bore  gun  made  by  a  famous  London 
smith,  and  looked  every  inch  a  prince.  He  had 
all  the  Darling  beauty  in  his  face  and  all  the 
Oducalchi  pride  of  place  and  fame. 

"Mr.  Darling,  I  believe?"  asked  the  prince, 
his  left  eyebrow  slightly  acockbill.  "I  have  not 
had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  for  some  years, 
but  I  perceive  that  you  are  by  way  of  accepting 
my  peace-offering." 

"I  was  never  just  to  you,"  said  Arthur,  a  little 
pale  and  looking  very  proud  and  handsome, 
"and  you  have  been  very  good  to  my  mamma 
and  you  have  been  very  good  to  me.  Will  you 
forgive  me  ?" 

"I  cannot  do  that.  There  has  been  nothing 
to  forgive.  But  I  will  shake  hands  with  you 
with  all  the  pleasure  in  the  world — my  dear  Cecily, 
does  he  come  up  to  the  memories  of  him  ?  Poor 
children,  you  have  had  a  sad  time  of  it  in  this 
merry  world  !  I  may  call  you  'Arthur*  ?  Arthur, 
this  is  your  half-brother,  Andrea.  I  hope  that 

272 


The  Seven  Darlings 

you  will  take  a  little  time  to  show  him  the  beauti- 
ful ways  of  your  North  Woods." 

Arthur  shook  hands  solemnly  with  the  small 
boy,  and  their  stanchly  met  eyes  told  of  an  im- 
mediate mutual  confidence  and  liking. 

"I've  always  wanted  a  brother  in  the  worst 
way,"  said  Arthur. 

"So  have  I,"  piped  Andrea. 

And  then  Princess  Oducalchi  came  out  of  her 
tent,  and  proved  that,  although  her  daughters 
resembled  her  in  features,  simplicity,  and  grace 
and  dignity  of  carriage,  they  would  never  really 
vie  with  her  in  beauty  until  they  had  loved  much, 
suffered  much,  borne  children  into  the  world,  and 
remembered  all  that  was  good  in  things  and  for- 
gotten all  that  was  evil. 

"Mamma,"  said  Arthur,  "is  worth  travelling 
ten  thousand  miles  to  see  any  day,  isn't  she?" 

"On  foot,"  said  Prince  Oducalchi,  "through 
forests  and  morasses  infested  with  robbers  and 
wild  beasts." 

The  princess  blushed  and  became  very  shy 
and  a  little  confused  for  a  few  moments.  Then, 
with  a  happy  laugh,  she  thrust  one  hand  through 
her  husband's  arm,  the  other  through  Arthur's, 
and  urged  them  in  the  direction  of  the  tent,  where 
breakfast  was  to  be  served. 

273 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Andrea  followed,  with  Cecily  holding  him 
tightly  by  the  hand. 

"If  we  had  not  been  buried  in  Somaliland  at 
the  time,"  said  Arthur's  mother,  "we  would  never 
have  let  this  'Inn'  happen.  I'm  sure  you  were 
against  it,  Arthur?" 

"Of  course,"  said  he  simply.  "But  with  sister 
Mary's  mind  made  up,  and  the  rest  backing 
her,  what  could  a  poor  broken-hearted  young 
man  do  ?  And  it  has  worked  out  better  than 
I  ever  hoped.  I  don't  mean  in  financial  ways. 
I  mean,  the  sides  of  it  that  I  thought  would  be 
humiliating  and  objectionable  haven't  been.  In- 
deed, it's  all  been  rather  a  lark,  and  Mary  insists 
upon  telling  me  that  we  are  a  lot  better  off  than 
we  were.  We  charge  people  the  most  outrageous 
prices !  It's  enough  to  make  a  dead  man  blush 
in  the  dark.  And  the  only  complaint  we  ever 
had  about  it  was  that  the  prices  weren't  high 
enough.  So  Mary  raised  them." 

"But,"  objected  Prince  Oducalchi,  "you,  and 
especially  your  sisters,  cannot  go  on  being  inn- 
keepers forever.  You,  I  understand,  for  in- 
stance"— and  his  fine  eyes  twinkled  with  mirth 
and  kindness — "are  thinking  of  getting  married." 

"I  am,"  said  Arthur,  with  so  much  conviction 
that  even  his  Cecily  laughed  at  him. 

274 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"When  I  divorced  your  poor  father,"  said  the 
princess,  "he  happened  to  be  enjoying  one  of  his 
terrifically  rich  moments.  So,  in  lieu  of  alimony, 
he  turned  over  a  really  huge  sum  of  money  to  me. 
When  I  married  Oducalchi  and  told  him  about 
the  money,  he  made  me  put  it  in  trust  for  you 
children,  to  be  turned  over  to  you  after  your 
father's  death.  So  you  see  there  was  never  any 
real  need  to  start  the  Inn — but  of  course  we  were 
in  Africa  and  so  forth  and  so  on —  If  you've 
finished  your  coffee,  I'm  dying  to  see  the  girls. 
And  I'm  dying  to  tell  them  about  the  money, 
and  to  send  all  the  horrid  guests  packing!" 

"Some  of  the  horrid  guests,"  said  Arthur, 
"won't  pack.  Of  course,  the  girls  think  that  I  only 
study  frogs  and  plants;  but  it's  a  libel.  When 
two  and  two  are  thrust  into  my  hands,  I  put 
them  together,  just  as  really  sensible  people  do. 
You  will  find,  mamma,  a  sad  state  of  affairs  at 
the  camp." 

Princess  Oducalchi  began  to  bristle  with  inter- 
est and  alarm. 

"Andrea,"  said  his  father,  "have  a  canoe  put 
overboard  for  me." 

Andrea  rose  at  once  and  left  the  breakfast  tent. 

"Now,  Arthur,"  cried  the  princess,  "tell  me 
everything  at  once !" 

275 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Gay,"  said  Arthur,  "is  in  love  with  a  young 
Englishman,  and  knows  that  she  is.  He  had  to 
go  home  to  be  made  an  earl;  but  I  think  she  is 
expecting  him  back  in  a  few  days,  because  she  is 
beginning  to  take  an  interest  in  the  things  she 
really  likes.  Mary  is  in  love  with  Sam  Langham, 
and  he  with  her.  They,  however,  don't  know 
this.  Phyllis  has  forsaken  her  garden  and  become 
a  dead-game  sport.  This  she  has  done  for  the 
sake  of  a  red-headed  Bostonian  named  Herring. 
Lee  and  a  young  fellow  named  Renier  are  neglect- 
ing other  people  for  each  other.  And  our  sedate 
Maud,  formerly  very  much  in  the  company  of 
two  fiery  Southerners,  is  now  very  much  in  the 
company  of  one  of  them,  Colonel  Meredith,  of 
South  Carolina.  The  other  Carolinian,  Mr.  Bob 
Jonstone,  sprained  his  wrist  the  other  day,  and  it 
seems  that  sister  Eve  was  intended  by  an  all- 
wise  Providence  to  be  a  trained  nurse.  But  in 
the  case  of  those  last  mentioned  there  are  cer- 
tain mysteries  to  be  solved." 

At  this  moment  Andrea  appeared  at  the  tent 
opening  and  announced  in  his  piping  child  voice: 
"The  canoe  is  overboard,  papa." 


276 


XXX 

ANDREA  stuck  to  his  big  brother  like  a  leech, 
and  insisted  upon  crossing  to  The  Camp  in 
the  same  canoe  with  him  and  Cecily.  To  Andrea 
the  possibility  of  newly  engaged  persons  wishing 
to  be  by  themselves  was  negligible.  Princess 
Oducalchi,  an  old  hand  on  inland  waters,  took 
charge  of  the  other  canoe,  and,  like  Arthur,  in 
spite  of  a  look  of  resigned  horror  on  her  husband's 
face,  paddled  standing  up. 

Arthur,  too  happy  to  make  speed,  was  rapidly 
distanced  by  his  mother,  whose  long,  graceful 
figure  and  charming  little,  round  head  he  regarded 
from  time  to  time  with  great  admiration. 

"She  might  be  one  of  my  sisters  !"  he  exclaimed 
to  Cecily. 

"If  she  only  was,"  said  Cecily,  "and  the  others 
were  only  exactly  like  her,  then  I  shouldn't  be  a 
bit  frightened." 

"Frightened?" 

"Wouldn't  you  be  frightened  if  I  had  six  great 
angry  brothers  and  you  were  just  going  to  meet 
them  for  the  first  time?" 

277 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Arthur  smiled  steadily  and  shook  his  head. 

"I'm  too  happy  to  be  afraid  of  anything." 

"I'm  not.  The  happier  I  feel  the  more  fright- 
ened I  feel.  And  I  can  feel  your  sisters  picking 
me  all  to  pieces,  and  saying  what  a  horrid  little 
thing  I  am !" 

"Little?  Haven't  I  told  you  that  you  are 
exactly  the  right  size?" 

"No,  you  haven't." 

"Then  I  tell  you  now.  I  leave  it  to  Andrea. 
Isn't  she  exactly  the  right  size,  Andrea?" 

"Then  mamma  is  too  tall." 

"No,  mamma  is  exactly  the  right  size  for  a 
mamma.  In  fact,  Andrea,"  exulted  Arthur,  "on 
this  particular  morning  of  this  particular  year  of 
grace  everything  in  the  world  is  exactly  the  right 
size,  except  me.  I'm  not  half  big  enough  to  con- 
tain my  feelings.  So  here  goes!" 

And  the  sedate  Arthur  put  back  his  head,  which 
resembled  that  of  the  young  Galahad,  and  opened 
his  mouth,  and  let  forth  the  most  blood-curdling 
war-whoop  that  has  been  sounded  during  the 
Christian  era. 

Cecily  clapped  her  hands  to  her  ears,  and  Andrea 
gazed  upon  his  big  brother  with  redoubled  ad- 
miration. 

"Is  that  like  Indians  do?"  he  asked. 
278 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Not  at  all,"  said  Arthur;  "that's  what  studi- 
ous and  domesticated  young  men  do  when  they've 
overslept,  and  wake  up  to  find  the  sky  blue  and 
the  forest  green."  And  once  more  he  whooped 
terrifically.  And  Wow,  the  dog,  heard  him,  and 
thought  he  had  gone  mad;  and  Uncas,  the  chip- 
munk, ran  to  the  top  of  a  tall  tree  at  full  speed, 
down  it  even  faster,  and  into  a  deep  and  safe 
hole  among  the  roots. 

Gay  alone  was  at  the  float  to  receive  the 
Oducalchis;  but  now  word  of  their  coming  had 
gone  about  The  Camp,  and  the  remaining  Dar- 
lings could  be  seen  hurrying  up  from  various  direc- 
tions. 

From  embracing  her  mother,  Gay  turned  with 
characteristic  swiftness  and  sweetness  to  Cecily, 
who  had  just  stepped  from  Arthur's  canoe  to  the 
float,  flung  her  arms  around  her,  and  kissed  her. 

"I'm  not  quite  sure  of  your  name,"  she  said; 
"but  I  love  you  very  much,  and  you're  prettier 
than  all  outdoors." 

Then  Maud  came,  followed  by  Eve  and  Mary, 
with  Lee  next  and  Phyllis  last,  and  they  all 
talked  at  once,  and  made  much  of  their  mother 
and  Cecily  and  little  Andrea.  And  they  all 
teased  Arthur  at  once,  and  showered  Oducalchi 
with  polite  and  hospitable  speeches.  And  he  was 

279 


The  Seven  Darlings 

greatly  moved,  because  he  knew  very  well  that 
these  beautiful  maidens  had  loved  their  own 
brilliant  scapegrace  father  to  distraction,  and 
that  it  was  hard  for  them  to  look  with  kindness 
upon  his  successor. 

Never,  I  think,  did  a  mere  float,  an  affair  of 
planks  supported  by  the  displacing  power  of 
empty  casks,  have  gathered  upon  it  at  one  time 
so  much  beauty,  so  many  delighted  and  delight- 
ful faces. 

And  now  came  guides,  servants,  and  camp 
helpers,  to  whom  Princess  Oducalchi  had  been 
a  kind  and  understanding  mistress  in  the  old  days, 
and  then,  shyly  and  hanging  back,  hoping  they 
were  wanted  and  not  sure,  Sam  Langham,  Re- 
nier,  Herring,  the  Carolinians,  and  others,  until 
the  float  began  to  sink  and  there  was  a  laugh- 
ter panic  and  a  general  rush  up  the  gangway 
to  the  shore.  Here  Wow,  the  dog,  did  a  great 
deal  of  swift  wagging  and  loud  barking,  and 
Uncas,  the  chipmunk,  from  the  top  of  a  tree  said : 
"I'm  not  really  angry,  but  I'm  scolding  because 
I'm  afraid  to  come  down,  and  nobody  loves  me 
or  makes  much  of  me — ever!" 

To  Arthur,  standing  a  little  aside,  beaming 
with  pride  and  happiness,  and  recording  in  his 
heart  every  pleasant  thing  which  his  sisters  said 

280 


The  Seven  Darlings 

to  Cecily  and  every  pleasant  look  they  gave  her, 
came  Gay  presently,  and  slipped  an  arm  through 
his. 

"I'm  so  glad,"  she  said. 

But  there  was  something  in  her  voice  that 
was  not  glad,  and  with  one  swift  glance  he  read 
her  wistful  heart.  He  pressed  her  arm,  and  said: 

"I  know  one  poor  little  kid  that's  left  out  in 
the  cold  for  the  moment;  one  little  lion  that  feels 
as  if  it  wasn't  going  to  get  any  martyr;  one  little 
sister  that  a  big  brother  loves  and  understands  a 
little  bit  better  than  any  of  the  others —  So 
there !  At  the  moment  every  chacune  has  her 
chacun,  except  one.  Moments  are  fleeting,  my 
dear,  and  other  moments  are  ahead.  I,  too,  have 
lived  bad,  empty,  unhappy  moments." 

"But  you  always  knew  that  she  cared." 

"And  don't  you  know  about  him  ?" 

"I  only  know  that  I've  seen  so  many  people 
appear  to  be  idiotically  happy  at  the  same  time, 
and  it  makes  me  want  to  cry." 

"And  for  that  very  reason,"  said  Arthur,  "the 
moments  that  are  ahead  will  be  the  happier." 

"I  wonder,"  said  Gay,  and,  "I  know,"  said 
Arthur. 


281 


XXXI 

THE  fact  of  Arthur's  sudden  blossoming  into 
a  full-fledged  and  emphatic  figure  of  ro- 
mance had  an  unsettling  effect  upon  many  of  the 
peacefully  disposed  minds  in  The  Camp.  It  is 
always  so  when  friends,  especially  in  youth,  come 
to  partings  of  ways.  Clement,  who  takes  the 
Low  road,  cannot  but  be  disturbed  at  the  thought 
of  those  possible  adventures  which  lie  in  wait 
for  Covington,  who  has  fared  forth  by  the  High. 
There  was  the  feeling  among  many  of  the  young 
people  in  the  camp  that,  if  they  didn't  hurry, 
they  might  be  left  behind.  Nobody  expressed 
this  feeling  or  acknowledged  it  or  recognized  in 
it  anything  more  than  a  feeling  of  unrest;  but  it 
existed,  nevertheless,  and  had  its  effect  upon 
actions  and  affections. 

Renier  had  been  leading  a  life  of  almost  per- 
fect happiness.  For  the  things  that  made  him 
happy  were  the  same  sort  of  things  that  make 
boys  happy.  No  school;  no  parental  obstructions 
or  admonitions;  green-and-blue  days  filled  from 

282 


The  Seven  Darlings 

end  to  end  with  fishing,  sailing,  making  fires, 
shooting  at  marks,  and  perfecting  himself  in 
physical  attainments.  Add  to  these  things  the 
digestion  and  the  faculties  of  a  healthy  boy  in- 
terested neither  in  drink,  tobacco,  nor  in  any  book 
which  failed  to  contain  exciting  and  chivalrous 
adventures,  and,  above  all,  a  companion  whose 
tastes  and  sympathies  were  such  that  she  might 
just  as  well  have  been  a  boy  as  not. 

They  were  chums  rather  than  sweethearts. 
It  needed  a  sense  of  old  times  coming  to  an  end 
and  new  times  beginning  to  make  them  realize 
the  full  depth  and  significance  of  their  attach- 
ment for  each  other. 

There  were  four  of  us  once  "in  a  kingdom  by 
the  sea,"  and  I  shall  not  forget  the  awful  sense  of 
partings  and  finality,  and  calamity,  for  that 
matter,  furnished  by  a  sudden  sight  of  the  first 
flaming  maple  of  autumn. 

"I  think  your  mother's  a  perfect  brick,"  said 
Renier.  "She  makes  you  feel  as  if  she'd  known 
you  all  your  life,  and  was  kind  of  grateful  to  you 
for  living." 

"I'm  rather  crazy  about  the  prince,"  said  Lee. 
"Of  course,  I  oughtn't  to  be.  But  I  can't  help 
it,  and  after  all  he's  been  awfully  good  to  mamma. 
Do  you  believe  in  divorce  ? " 

283 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  never  did  until  I  saw  your  mother.  She 
wouldn't  ask  for  anything  that  she  didn't  really 
deserve." 

"But  it's  funny,  isn't  it,"  said  Lee,  "that  so 
many  people  get  on  famously  together  until  they 
are  actually  married,  and  then  they  begin  to 
fight  like  cats  ?  I  knew  a  girl  who  was  engaged 
to  a  man  for  five  years.  You'd  think  they'd  get 
to  know  each  other  pretty  well  in  that  time, 
wouldn't  you  ?  But  they  didn't.  They  hadn't  been 
married  six  months  before  they  hated  each  other." 

"And  that  proves,"  said  Renier,  "that  long 
engagements  are  a  mistake." 

"  Smarty  ! "  exclaimed  Lee. 

"I  suppose  your  brother'll  be  getting  married 
right  away,  won't  he  ?  Haven't  they  liked  each 
other  for  ever  so  long  ? " 

"M'm!"  Lee  nodded.  "But  Arthur  never 
does  anything  right  away.  He  does  too  much 
mooning  and  wool-gathering.  If  a  united  family 
can  get  him  to  the  altar  in  less  than  a  year  they'll 
have  accomplished  wonders.  There's  one  thing, 
though — when  we  do  get  him  married  good  and 
proper,  he'll  stay  married.  He's  like  that  at  all 
games.  It  comes  natural  to  him  to  keep  his  eyes 
in  the  boat.  He's  got  the  finest  and  sweetest 
nature  of  any  man  in  this  world,  /  think." 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Of  course,  you  except  present  company?'* 

"Heavens,  yes!"  cried  Lee,  and  they  both 
laughed. 

Then,  suddenly,  Lee  looked  him  in  the  eyes 
quite  solemnly. 

"I  wasn't  fooling,"  she  said,  "not  entirely. 
I  do  think  you're  fine  and  sweet.  I  didn't  always, 
but  I  do  now." 

There  was  levity  in  Renier's  words  but  not  in 
his  voice. 

"This,"  he  said,  "so  far  has  been  a  perfectly 
good  Tuesday." 

"Whatever  we  do  together,"  said  Lee,  "you 
always  give  me  the  best  of  it.  It's  been  a  good 
summer." 

"  Do  you  feel  as  if  summer  was  over,  too  ? " 

She  nodded. 

"That's  funny,  isn't  it?  Because  it's  nowhere 
near  over,  is  it  ?  Maybe  it's  the  excitement  of 
the  Oducalchis'  arrival  and  your  brother's  en- 
gagement. It  makes  you  sort  of  feel  as  if  there 
wasn't  time  to  settle  back  into  the  regular  life 
and  get  things  going  again  before  the  leaves  fall." 

He  spoke.  And  from  the  fine  striped  maple 
under  which  they  sat  there  fell,  and  fluttered 
slowly  into  Lee's  lap,  a  great  yellowing  leaf 
ribbed  with  incipient  scarlet. 

285 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"That  only  means,"  said  Renier — but  there 
was  a  kind  of  awe  in  his  voice — "that  this  par- 
ticular tree  has  indigestion." 

And  they  sat  for  a  time  in  silence  and  looked 
at  the  leaf.  And  lo !  Arthur  came  upon  them, 
smiling. 

"I  was  looking  for  you  two,"  he  said.  "I 
thought  maybe  you'd  do  me  a  great  favor.  I've 
got  to  play  host,  and " 

"Nobody  would  miss  us!"  exclaimed  Lee. 

"They  wouldn't?"  said  Arthur.  "I'll  bet 
you  anything  you  like  that,  during  your  absence, 
you  will  both  be  mentioned  among  the  missing, 
by  name,  at  least  five  times." 

"What'll  you  bet?"  asked  Lee  eagerly.  "No- 
body ever  thinks  of  us.  Nobody  ever  mentions 
us.  Nobody  even  loves  us.  What'll  you  bet  ?" 

"Anything  you  like,"  said  Arthur,  "and  if 
necessary  I  will  take  charge  of  the  five  personal 
mentionings  and  make  them  myself!" 

Lee  shook  her  head  sadly,  and  said:  "Once 
an  accepted  lover,  always  a  sure  thing,  man. 
Oh,  Arthur,  how  low  you  have  fallen !  You 
used  to  engineer  bets  with  me  for  the  sheer  joy 
of  seeing  me  win  them.  But  now  you  are  on  the 
make,  and  it  looks  as  if  there  was  no  justice  under 
heaven —  Where  do  you  want  us  to  go  and  what 

286 


The  Seven  Darlings 

do  you  want  us  to  do  when  we  get  there  ?  Of 
course,  we'll  go;  we  always  do.  Everybody  sends 
us  on  errands,  and  we  always  go.  The  longer  the 
errands  the  oftener  we  go.  But  nobody  seems  to 
realize  that  we  might  enjoy  spending  one  single 
solitary  afternoon  sitting  under  a  striped  maple 
and  watching  the  green  leaves  turn  yellow.  No- 
body even  loves  us !  But  when  we  are  dead 
there  will  be  the  most  frightful  remorse  and  sor- 
row." 

Arthur  leaned  heavily  against  the  stem  of  the 
striped  maple. 

"Your  sad  case,"  he  said,  "certainly  cries 
aloud  for  justice  and  redress " 

"  'Kid  us  along,  Bo,'  "  said  Lee;  "we  love  it!" 

"I  want  two  people,"  said  Arthur,  "for  whom 
I  have  affection  and  in  whom  I  have  confidence, 
to  go  at  once  to  Carrytown  in  the  Streak  and 
consult  a  lawyer  upon  a  matter  of  paramount 
importance  and  delicacy — "  He  hesitated,  and 
Lee  said: 

"I  pray  you,  without  further  ado,  continue 
your  piquant  narrative." 

Then  Arthur,  in  a  tone  of  solemn,  confidential 
eagerness : 

"Look  here,  you  two,  go  to  Carrytown,  will 
you,  and  find  out  how  quickly  two  people  can  get 

287 


The  Seven  Darlings 

married  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  what  they 
have  to  do  about  licenses  and  things  ?  Will  you  ? 
I'll  be  eternally  obliged." 

"Of  course,  we  will,"  exclaimed  Lee  in  sudden 
excitement.  "Are  you  game?" 

"You  bet  your  sweet  life  I'm  game!"  cried 
the  vulgar  Renier.  And  a  few  minutes  later  the 
two  inseparable  school-boyesque  chums,  whom 
nobody  mentioned,  whom  everybody  sent  on 
errands,  and  whom  nobody  even  loved,  were 
streaking  across  the  lake  in  the  Streak. 

There  was  but  the  one  lawyer  in  Carrytown 
and  the  one  stenographer.  Their  shingles  hang 
one  above  the  other  on  the  face  of  the  one  brick 
building. 

At  the  door  of  this  building  Lee  suddenly  drew 
back. 

"Look  here!"  she  said.  "Won't  it  look  rather 
funny  if  we  march  in  hand  in  hand  and  say: 
'Beg  pardon,  sir,  but  how  do  you  get  married  in 
the  State  of  New  York?'" 

"It  would  look  funny,"  said  Renier,  "and  I 
shouldn't  wonder  if  it  made  us  feel  funny.  But 
the  joke  would  really  be  on  the  lawyer.  We 
could  say  * Honi  soil  qui  mal  y  pense'  to  him.  Of 
course,  if  it  would  really  embarrass  you " 

"It  wouldn't,"  said  Lee,  "really." 
288 


The  Seven  Darlings 

So  they  went  up  a  narrow  flight  of  stairs  and 
knocked  on  the  door  of  room  Number  Five. 
There  was  no  answer.  So  they  pushed  open  the 
door  and  entered  a  square  room  bound  in  sheep- 
skin with  red-and-black  labels.  There  was  no- 
body in  the  room,  and  Lee  exclaimed: 

"Nobody  even  loves  us." 

"He'll  be  in  the  back  room,"  said  Renier.  "I 
know.  Once  I  swiped  a  muskmelon  from  a 
lawyer's  melon-patch,  and  had  to  see  him  about 

it.     He  was  in  the  back  room " 

s ' Counting  out  his  money'  ?  " 

"No;  he  was  drinking  whiskey  with  a  judge 
and  a  livery-stable  keeper,  and  they  were  all 
spitting  on  a  red-hot  stove." 

"What  did  he  do  about  the  melon?" 

"He  told  me  to  can  the  melon  and  have  a 
drink.  I  had  already  canned  the  melon  as  well 
as  I  could  (I  wasn't  educated  along  scientific 
lines)  and  my  grandmother  had  promised  me  any 
watch  I  wanted  if  I  didn't  drink  till  I  was  twenty- 
one." 

"Did  you?" 

"I  did  not." 

"Did  you  get  the  watch?" 

"I  did  not." 

"Why  not?" 

289 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Grandma  reneged.  She  said  she  didn't  re- 
member making  any  such  promise." 

They  pushed  open  a  swinging  door  and  entered 
the  back  room. 

Here,  in  a  revolving  chair,  sat  a  stout  young 
man  with  a  red  face.  Upon  his  knees  sat  a  stout 
young  woman  with  a  red  face.  And  with  some- 
thing of  the  consistency  with  which  a  stamp  ad- 
heres to  an  envelope  so  the  one  red  face  appeared 
glued  to  the  other  red  face. 

The  red  face  of  the  stout  young  man  had  one 
free  eye  which  detected  the  presence  of  intruders. 
And  the  stout  young  man  said: 

"Caught  with  the  goods!  Jump  up,  Minnie, 
and  behave  yourself!" 

Minnie's  upspring  was  almost  a  record-breaker. 

Renier  began  to  stammer: 

"I  b-b-beg  your  pardon,"  he  said,  "but  I 
thought  you  might  b-b-be  able  to  tell  me  how 
to  g-g-get  married  in  New  York  State." 

The  stout  young  man  rose  from  his  revolving 
chair;  he  was  embarrassed  almost  to  the  point  of 
paralysis,  but  his  mind  and  mouth  continued  to 
work. 

"You've  come  to  just  the  right  man,"  he  said, 
"at  just  the  right  time,  for  information  of  that 
sort.  First,  you  hire  a  stenographer;  then  you 

290 


They  pushed  open  a  swinging  door  and  entered  the  back  room 


The  Seven  Darlings 

get  a  mash  on  her.  Then  she  sits  in  your  lap — 
she  will  do  it — and  then  you  kiss  her.  And  then 
you  get  a  license,  and  then  you  curse  laws  and  red 
tape  for  a  while,  and  then  you  wed.  Now,  what 
you  want  is  a  license  ?" 

"Exactly,"  said  Renier.  "It — it's  for  another 
fellow." 

"Friend  of  yours?"  queried  the  stout  young 
man. 

"Yes." 

"And  you  want  a  license  for  him,  not  for 
yourself?" 

Renier  nodded. 

"At  this  moment,"  said  the  stout  young  man, 
"there  are  assembled  on  the  long  wharf,  chewin' 
tobacco  and  cursin',  some  twenty-five  or  thirty 
marines.  Would  you  mind  just  stepping  down 
and  telling  that  to  them?" 

"I  am  quite  serious,"  said  Renier.  "It  is  my 
friend  who  wants  to  get  married." 

" And  you  don't?" 

Renier  stammered  ineffectually. 

"Then,"  said  the  stout  young  man,  with  a 
glance  at  Lee  (of  the  highest  admiration),  "you're 
a  gol-darn  fool." 

And  forthwith  he  was  so  vulgar  as  to  burst 
into  a  sudden  snatch  of  song: 

291 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Old  man  Rule  was  a  gol-darn  fool, 
For  he  couldn't  see  the  water  in  the  gol-darn  pool!" 

At  the  finish  of  this  improvisation  the  dreadfully 
confused  Minnie  went,  "Tee-hee!" 

And,  horror  of  horrors,  that  charming  boylike 
companion,  Lee  Darling,  behind  whom  were 
well-bred  generations,  also  went  suddenly,  "Tee- 
hee." 

"Licenses,"  said  the  stout  young  man,  "are 
applied  for  in  room  Five.  After  you,  sir;  after 
you,  miss." 

And,  with  a  waggish  expression,  he  turned  to 
Minnie. 

"Be  back  in  five  minutes,"  he  said;  "try  not 
to  forget  me,  my  flighty  one." 

When  they  were  in  the  front  room,  he  said: 

"  Before  a  license  is  issued,  the  licensor  must  be 
satisfied  as  to  the  preliminaries.  Now,  then, 
what  can  you  tell  me  as  to  lap  sitting  and  kiss- 
ings?" 

"You,"  cried  Lee,  in  a  sudden  blaze  of  indigna- 
tion, "  are  the  freshest,  most  objectionable  Amer- 
ican I  ever  set  eyes  on." 

The  stout  young  man  turned  appealingly  to 
Renier. 

"You  wouldn't  say  that,"  he  said;  "you'd 
say  I  was  just  typical,  wouldn't  you,  now  ?  And 

292 


The  Seven  Darlings 

I  wish  you  would  tell  her  that,  though  in  these 
backwoods  I  have  been  obliged  to  eschew  my 
Chesterfield,  I've  got  a  great  big  heart  in  me  and 
mean  well." 

During  the  last  words  of  this  speech  he  became 
appealingly  wistful. 

"Why,"  said  he  to  Lee,  "just  because  Minnie 
and  me  is  stout,  don't  you  think  we  know  heaven 
when  we  see  it — the  empyrean !  Yesterday  she 
threw  me  down,  and  I  says  to  her:  'Since  all  my 
life  seems  meant  for  "fails" — since  this  was 
written  and  needs  must  be — my  whole  soul  rises 
up  to  bless  your  name  in  pride  and  thankful- 
ness. Who  knows  but  the  world  may  end  to- 
night ?'  To-day  she  sits  in  my  lap  and  we  see 
which  can  hug  the  hardest.  Ever  try  that?" 

And  suddenly  the  creature's  voice  melted  and 
shook.  He  was  a  genuine  orator,  as  we  Americans 
understand  it,  having  that  within  his  powers  of 
voice  that  defies  logic  and  melts  the  heart. 

"Wouldn't  you,"  he  said,  "even  like  to  sit  in 
his  lap  ?  Wouldn't  you  love  to  sit  in  his  lap  and 
be  hugged  ?" 

Lee  looked  to  Renier  for  help,  as  he  to  her. 
And  they  took  a  step  apiece  directly  toward  each 
other,  and  another  step.  It  was  as  if  they  had  been 
hypnotized.  Suddenly  Renier  caught  Lee's  hand 

293 


The  Seven  Darlings 

in  his,  and  after  a  moment  of  looking  into  his 
eyes  she  turned  to  the  stout  man,  and  sang  in 
miraculous  imitation  of  him : 

"Young  Miss  Mule  is  a  gol-darn  fool, 
But  you  made  her  see  the  water  in  the  gol-darn  pool." 

"I'll  just  get  a  license  blank,"  said  the  stout 
young  man.  "They're  in  the  back  room." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Renier — "if  you  will, 
Mr.- 

" Heartbeat!"  flashed  the  stout  young  man, 
and  left  them.  And  he  wasn't  lying  or  making 
fun  that  time.  For  that  was  his  really  truly 
name.  And  in  northern  New  York  people  are 
beginning  to  think  that  he  is  by  way  of  being  up 
to  it. 

Suddenly  Lee  quoted  from  a  joke  that  she  and 
Renier  had  in  common.  She  said,  as  if  sur- 
prised : 

"  'Why,  there's  a  table  over  there !' ' 

And  Renier,  his  voice  suddenly  breaking  and 
melting,  answered: 

'Why,  so  there  is — and  here's  a  chair!' ' 

And  Mr.  Heartbeat,  making  a  supreme  effort 
to  live  up  to  his  name,  did  not  return  with  the 
license  blank  for  nearly  eight  minutes.  During 

294 


The  Seven  Darlings 

those  minutes,  Renier  resolved  that  in  every  room 
in  his  home  there  should  be  at  least  one  revolving 
chair.  And  they  came  out  of  Mr.  Heartbeat's 
office  no  longer  boyish  companions  but  lovers,  a 
little  startled,  engaged,  and  licensed  to  be  married. 


29$ 


XXXII 

"TEE,  dear,"  said  Renier,  "you  don't  feel  that 

•  ^  that  fellow  buncoed  you  into  this,  do  you  ? 
Please  say  you  don't." 

"Of  course,  I  wasn't  buncoed,"  she  said,  and 
with  infinite  confidence.  "Why,  I've  seen  the 
thing  coming  for  months!  Haven't  you?" 

"I've  seen  a  certain  girl  begin  by  being  very 
dear  and  grow  dearer  and  dearer — I  wish  we  could 
walk  back.  I'm  afraid  of  motor-boats,  fresh 
water,  and  sudden  storms  on  mountain  lakes. 
And  I  hereby  highly  resolve  that  after  this  peril- 
ous trip  I  shall  never  again  do  anything  dangerous, 
such  as  watching  people  going  up  in  aeroplanes, 
such  as  sitting  around  with  wet  feet,  such  as  eat- 
ing green  fruit,  such  as —  Oh,  my  own  darling 
little  kiddie,"  he  whispered  with  sudden  trembling 
emotion,  "but  this  life  is  precious." 

"George  and  Charley  are  looking  at  us,"  said 
Lee,  "with  funny  looks.  I  wonder  if  they  are 
on?  I  wonder  if  everybody  will  be  on — just  by 
looking  at  us.  Do  I  look  foolish  ?" 

296 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"You  do  not,  but  I  think  you  are  foolish  to 
take  a  feller  like  me,  and  that's  why  I'm  going  to 
dance  down  this  gang-plank  and  snap  my  fingers 
and  shock  George  and  Charley  out  of  their 
senses." 

During  this  first  part  of  the  Streak's  swift  rush 
from  Carrytown  to  The  Camp  a  tranquil  silence 
came  over  them.  Lee,  I  think,  was  searching 
her  heart  with  questions.  But  she  had  no  doubt 
of  her  love  for  Renier;  she  doubted  only  her 
capacity  to  be  to  him  exactly  the  wife  he  needed. 
And  I  know  that  Renier  just  sat,  brazening  the 
critical  glances  of  George  and  Charley,  and 
adored  her  with  his  eyes. 

And  what  were  his  thoughts  ?  Would  you  give 
a  penny  for  them  ?  He  leaned  closer  to  her,  and 
in  a  whisper  that  thrived  them  both  to  the  bone, 
he  quoted  from  Poe: 

"And  neither  the  angels  in  heaven  above, 
Nor  the  demons  down  under  the  sea, 
Can  ever  dissever  my  soul  from  the  soul 
Of  the  beautiful  Annabel  Lee." 

And  a  little  later  he  said: 

"I  never  knew  till  to-day  what  poetry  is  for. 
I  thought  people  who  wrote  it  were  just  a  little 
simple  and  that  people  who  read  and  quoted  it 
were  perfect  jackasses." 

297 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"And  what  is  poetry  for?"  asked  Lee,  smiling. 

"Poetry,"  he  said,  "is  for  you" 

As  they  neared  the  camp  the  sentiment  in 
their  hearts  yielded  a  little  to  excitement. 

"When  we  tell  'em,"  said  Lee,  "it's  going  to 
be  just  like  a  bomb  going  off.  And  everybody 
will  be  terribly  envious." 

"Nobody  even  loves  us,"  laughed  Renier,  and 
he  quoted: 

"Among  ten  million,  one  was  she, 
And  surely  all  men  hated  me." 

And  like  a  flash  Lee  answered: 

"Among  ten  million  he  was  one, 
So  all  the  ladies  fought  like  fun." 

"One  thing  is  sure,"  said  Renier,  "we've  more 
than  executed  Brother  Arthur's  delicate  and 
confidential  commission.  What  we  don't  know 
about  getting  married  in  the  State  of  New  York 
simply  doesn't  exist." 

Arthur,  eager  and  impatient,  was  like  a  more 
famous  person,  watching  and  waiting. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "thank  you  a  thousand  times. 
And  what  did  you  find  out?" 

"We've  brought  you  a  license  blank,"  said 
Lee;  "you  simply  fill  it  out  with  your  names  and 

298 


The  Seven  Darlings 

ages  and  things — like  this — "     And  she  placed  a 
second  paper  in  her  brother's  hands. 

And  conspicuous  on  the  paper  he  saw  Lee's 
name  and  Renier's.  His  hands  shook  a  little, 
and  his  face  became  very  grave  and  tender. 

"Say  you're  surprised!"  exclaimed  Lee;  "say 
you  were  never  so  surprised  in  all  your  born 
days!" 

"But  I'm  not  surprised,"  said  Arthur.  "Come 
here  to  me !"  He  opened  his  arms  to  her  and  she 
flung  herself  into  them.  Over  her  shoulder  and 
hiding  head  Arthur  spoke  to  Renier. 

"No  man,"  he  said,  "knows  his  own  heart, 
and  no  woman  knows  hers.  Nobody  can  promise 
with  honesty  to  love  forever.  For  sometimes 
love  dies  just  as  simply  and  inexplicably  as  it  is 
born.  But  a  man  can  promise  to  be  good  to  his 
wife  always,  and  tender  with  her  and  faithful  to 
her,  and  if  he  is  a  gentleman  he  will  make  those 
promises  good." 

"I  make  those  promises,"  said  Renier  simply; 
"will  you  give  her  to  me  ?" 

"It  is  for  no  man  to  give  or  to  withhold,"  said 
Arthur.  "The  gods  give.  The  duty  of  brothers 
is  just  to  try  to  help  things  along  and  to  love  their 
sisters  and  to  be  friends  with  their  brothers-in- 
law." 

299 


XXXIII 

"  AND  now,"  said  Lee,  "I  think  I'll  tell 
JLM.  mamma." 

On  the  way  to  find  the  princess,  Lee  and  Renier 
encountered  Herring.  He  appeared  to  be  hurry- 
ing, but  something  in  their  faces  brought  him  tb 
a  sudden  stop. 

Their  attempts  to  meet  his  inquiring  gaze 
with  indifference  proved  unavailing,  for  he  closed 
one  eye  and  said: 

"Which  of  you  two  has  swallowed  the  family 
canary  ?  Or  has  each  of  you  swallowed  half  of 
him?" 

The  guilty  pair  were  unable  to  preserve  their 
natural  coloring.  They  turned  crimson,  and  each 
showed  a  courteous  willingness  to  let  the  other  be 
the  first  to  speak. 

"You've  been  to  Carrytown,"  said  Herring. 
"I  saw  you  start.  You  raced  down  to  the  float. 
And  in  your  rivalry  to  see  which  should  board 
the  Streak  first,  it  looked  as  if  you  were  going  to 
knock  each  other  overboard.  Renier,  he  won, 
and  you,  Miss  Lee,  were  annoyed.  When  you 

300 


The  Seven  Darlings 

returned  from  Carrytown,  you  had  long,  pensive, 
anxious  faces.  Renier  stepped  ashore  and,  in 
helping  you  ashore,  gave  you  both  hands.  When 
a  girl  whom  I  have  seen  climb  a  tree  after  a  baby 
owl  accepts  the  aid  of  a  man's  two  hands  in 
stepping  from  a  solid  boat  to  a  solid  float,  there  is 
food  for  thought.  Having  landed,  you  pro- 
ceeded direct  to  the  head  of  the  Darling  family 
and  were  for  some  time  engaged  with  him  in 
solemn  discourse.  A  paper  was  shown  him. 
From  a  distance  it  looked  as  if  it  might  be  some 
sort  of  a  license — a  license  to  hunt  and  be  hunted, 
perhaps " 

"But  it  wasn't,"  said  Lee  suddenly,  and  she 
thrust  her  hand  under  Renier's  arm.  "If  you 
must  know,  Mr.  Sherlock  Holmes,  it  was  a  license 
to  love  and  be  loved.  So  there!" 

She  was  no  longer  blinking,  nor  was  Renier. 
They  looked  so  loving  and  proud  that  it  was 
Herring's  turn  to  feel  embarrassment.  Then  he 
said: 

"I  only  meant  to  be  a  tease.  If  I'd  really 
thought  anything — I  wouldn't,  of  course;  none 
of  my  darn  business.  But  I'm  awfully  glad. 
I've  hoped  all  along  it  would  happen.  It's  the 
best  ever.  Am  I  to  be  secret  as  the  grave  or  can 
I  tell — any  one  I  happen  to  meet?" 

301 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Give  us  ten  minutes  to  tell  mamma,"  said 
Lee,  "and  then  consider  your  lips  unsealed." 

Herring  had  drawn  from  his  pocket  a  stop- 
watch and  set  it  going. 

"Ten  minutes,"  he  said.  "Thanks  awfully ! 
And  good  luck!" 

He  had  turned,  waving  his  free  hand  to  them, 
and  darted  away. 

Lee  laughed  scornfully. 

"Any  one  he  happens  to  meet !"  she  exclaimed. 
"He's  headed  straight  for  the  garden,  and  there 
he'll  just  happen  to  meet  Phyllis.  She  was 
speaking  of  her  tomatoes  at  breakfast,  and  saying 
that  they  ought  to  be  ripening  and  that  she  was 
going  to  have  a  look  at  them." 

"Lee,  darling,"  said  Renier,  "nobody  can 
possibly  see  us.  And  when  Mr.  Heartbeat  left 
us  alone  in  the  front  room  it  was  a  frightfully 
long  time  ago.  And  sometimes  a  fellow's  arms 
get  to  aching  with  sheer  emptiness,  and — and, 
'this  is  the  forest  primeval,  the  murmuring  pines 
and  the  hemlocks 

"Are  mostly  birches  and  larches  hereabouts," 
said  Lee,  and,  with  a  happy  laugh,  she  drifted 
into  a  pair  of  arms  that  closed  tightly  about  her. 
And,  "It  doesn't  matter  if  anybody  does  see  us," 
she  said. 


302 


The  Seven  Darlings 

It  was  characteristic  of  Herring  that  he  should 
enter  the  garden  by  leaping  over  the  fence.  It 
was  also  characteristic  that  he  should  catch  his 
foot  on  the  top  rail  and  fall  at  full  length  in  a 
bed  of  very  beautiful  and  much  cherished  phlox. 

Phyllis,  in  the  path  near  by,  gazed  at  the 
fallen  man  with  mirth  and  anxiety. 

"Hurt?"  she  asked. 

He  rose  and  examined  a  watch  which  he  was 
carrying  in  his  right  hand. 

"Crystal  smashed,"  he  said,  "but  still  going. 
And  I've  got  to  wait  four  minutes  !" 

"Why  have  you  got  to  wait  four  minutes?" 

"Because  I  promised  to  wait  ten,  and  six  of 
them  have  elapsed.  Oh,  but  won't  you  be  ex- 
cited when  I  am  at  liberty  to  speak !  It's  more 
exciting  than  when  we  were  lost  in  the  woods, 
crossing  the  swamp  that  had  never  been  crossed 
before.  Meanwhile,  let  us  calm  ourselves  by  talk- 
ing of  something  prosaic.  How  are  the  tomatoes 
getting  on  ?" 

Phyllis  put  up  her  hand  in  a  smiling  militarv 
salute. 

(  'General    Blank's   compliments,'  "    she   said, 
'  'and   the  colored  troops  are  turning  black  in 
the  face.'  " 

"My   favorite   breakfast   dish,"   said   Herring, 
303 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"is  grilled  tomatoes,  preceded  by  raw  oysters  and 
oatmeal." 

"Isn't  it  nice,"  said  Phyllis,  "that  there  is 
money  in  the  family  after  all,  and  we're  going  to 
give  up  The  Camp  as  an  inn?" 

"It  would  have  been  given  up  anyway,"  said 
Herring.  "A  determined  body  of  men  had  so 
resolved  in  secret.  There's  one  minute  left." 

For  some  reason  they  found  nothing  to  say 
during  the  whole  of  that  minute.  When  the 
last  second  thereof  had  passed  forever,  Herring 
said  simply: 

"Your  sister  Lee  and  Renier  are  going  to  be 
married." 

I  cannot  describe  the  expression  that  came 
over  Phyllis's  face.  It  wasn't  exactly  jealousy; 
it  wasn't  exactly  the  expression  of  a  beautiful 
female  commuter  who  has  just  missed  her  train. 
It  wasn't  a  wild  look,  or  a  happy  look,  or  a  sad 
look.  Perhaps  it  was  a  little  bit  more  of  an  ach- 
ing void  look  than  anything  else. 

Whatever  its  exact  nature,  the  wily  Herring 
studied  it  with  an  immense  satisfaction.  And 
then  his  heart  began  to  flurry  in  a  sort  of  panic. 

"Lee!"  exclaimed  Phyllis,  "married!  Why, 
they're  nothing  but  children  !" 

She  felt  something  encircle  her  waist.  She 
304 


'Lee!"  exclaimed  Phyllis,  "married!     Why,  they're  nothing  but 
children !" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

looked  down  and  saw  a  hand  and  part  of  an  arm. 

"What  are  you  doing?"  she  asked,  in  a  sort 
of  daze. 

"I'm  trying  to  establish  a  hold  on  you,"  said 
Herring,  and  toward  the  end  of  so  saying  his 
voice  broke;  "and  you're  not  to  feel  lonely  and 
deserted  with  me  standing  here,  are  you  ?" 

For  a  moment  it  seemed  to  Herring  that  Phyllis 
was  going  to  extricate  herself  from  his  encircling 
arm.  She  achieved,  indeed,  a  quarter  revolution 
to  the  left  and  away  from  him. 

"Don't,  Phyllis!"  he  cried.  "Don't  do  it! 
I  couldn't  bear  it!" 

Then  she  ceased  revolving  to  the  left,  stopped, 
and  from  a  startled,  uncertain,  half-frightened 
young  person  became  suddenly  a  warmly  loving 
young  person,  warmly  loved,  who  revolved  sud- 
denly to  the  right,  and  became  the  recipient  of  a 
sudden  storm  of  ecstatic  exclamations  and  kisses. 

And  then,  nestling  close  to  the  one  and  only 
man  in  the  world,  she  listened  with  complete 
satisfaction  to  his  efforts  to  explain  to  her  just 
how  beautiful  and  wonderful  and  good  she  was. 


305 


XXXIV 

WHEN    Lee    and    Renier,    locked    in    each 
other's  arms,  stood  in  the  forest  primeval, 
they  were  mistaken  in  imagining  themselves  to 
be  unobserved. 

A  short  half-hour  before,  Mary  Darling  had 
received  a  proposal  of  marriage.  But  Mr.  Sam 
Langham,  usually  so  worldly-wise,  had  erred, 
perhaps,  in  his  choice  of  time  and  place.  What- 
ever a  huge  kitchen,  bright  with  sunlight  upon 
burnished  copper,  may  be,  it  is  not  a  romantic 
place.  And,  worse  than  this,  Mary  herself  was 
not  in  a  romantic  mood.  Certain  supplies  due  by 
the  morning  express  had  not  arrived.  Chef  was 
at  the  telephone  shouting  broken  French  to  the 
butcher  in  Carry  town;  one  of  the  kitchen-maids 
had  come  down  with  an  aching  tooth,  and  the 
other  had  been  sent  upon  an  errand  from  which 
she  should  have  long  since  returned. 

"Oh,"  exclaimed  Mary,  as  Mr.  Langham 
entered,  smiling,  "everything  is  in  such  a  mess! 
I  don't  believe  there's  going  to  be  any  lunch 
to-day  for  any  one.  And  I  think  I  shall  have  a 
nervous  breakdown!" 

306 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  told  you  you  would  long  ago,"  said  Lang- 
ham,  "if  you  didn't  rest  more  and  take  things 
easier.  What  does  it  matter  if  things  go  wrong 
once  in  a  while  ?  And  if  there  isn't  going  to  be 
any  lunch,  I'm  glad,  for  one.  I  was  thinking  of 
not  eating  mine,  anyway.  And  if  I'm  not  hungry, 
you  can  be  pretty  sure  that  nobody  else  is  hungry. 
I  tell  you  it  hurts  me  to  see  you  work  so  hard.  I 
admire  it  and  I  bow  down,  but  it  hurts.  You  tell 
Chef  to  do  the  best  he  can,  and  you  come  for  a 
brisk  walk  with  me.  We'll  walk  up  an  appetite, 
and " 

"I  can't  possibly,"  said  Mary.  "I've  got  to 
stand  by." 

"Then  you  go  for  a  walk  and  I'll  stand  by. 
Only  trust  me.  /'//  see  that  nobody  goes  hun- 

gry." 

She  did  not  appear  to  have  heard  his  offer,  and 
Mr.  Langham  spoke  again,  with  a  sudden  change 
of  tone. 

"I'd  like  to  take  you  out  of  this.  I'd  like  to 
make  everything  in  the  world  easy  for  you,  if 
you  would  only  let  me.  But  you  know  that. 
You've  known  it  all  along.  And  knowing  it, 
you've  never  even  shown  that  it  interested  you; 
and  so  I  suppose  it's  folly  for  me  to  mention  it. 
But  a  man  can't  give  up  all  his  hopes  of  happiness 

307 


The  Seven  Darlings 

in  this  world  without  even  stating  them,  can  he  ? 
I've  hoped  that  you  might  get  to  care  a  little 
about  me " 

Mary  interrupted  him  with  considerable  im- 
patience. 

"Really,"  she  said,  "with  Chef  shouting  at 
the  telephone,  and  all,  I  don't  know  what  you  are 
driving  at." 

At  that  Mr.  Langham  looked  so  hurt  and  so 
unhappy  and  woebegone  that  Mary  was  touched 
with  remorse. 

"I  didn't  realize  you  were  in  earnest,"  she  said. 
"I'm  sorry  I've  hurt  your  feelings,  but  it's  no  use. 
I'm  sorry — awfully  sorry;  but  it's  no  use." 

"I'm  sorry,  too,"  said  Langham;  "sorry  I 
spoke;  sorrier  there  was  no  use  in  speaking; 
sorriest  of  all  that  I'm  no  good  to  any  one.  But 
as  long  as  I  had  to  come  a  cropper,  why,  I'm  glad 
it  was  for  no  one  less  wonderful  than  you.  Will 
you  let  things  be  as  they  were  ?  I  won't  bother 
you  about  my  personal  feelings  ever  again  by  a 
look  or  a  word." 

After  he  had  gone  Mary  stood  for  a  while 
with  knitted  brows.  Chef  had  finished  tele- 
phoning. The  kitchen  was  in  silence.  Suddenly 
she  broke  this  silence. 

"Chef,"  she  exclaimed,  "I'm  no  use  at  all! 
308 


The  Seven  Darlings 

You'll  just  have  to  do  the  best  you  can  about 
lunch  by  yourself." 

And  she  left  the  kitchen  with  great  swiftness, 
looking  like  an  angel  on  the  verge  of  tears. 

Chefs  shining  red  face  divided  into  a  white 
smile,  and  he  began  to  bustle  about  and  make  a 
noise  with  pots  and  pans  and  carving  tools,  and 
to  sing  as  he  bustled: 

"  Sur  le  pont  d' Avignon 
Von  y  danse,  Yon  y  danse, 
Sur  le  pont  d' Avignon 
Uon  y  danse  tout  en  rond — 
Les  belles  dames  font  commqa^ 
Et  puis  encore  comm'fa." 

It  is  probable  that  in  his  gay  Parisian  youth 
Chef  had  known  a  good  deal  about  les  belles 
dames.  He  had  latterly  given  much  attention 
to  the  progress  of  Miss  Darling's  friendship  with 
Mr.  Langham,  and  that  this  same  progress  had 
received  a  sharp  setback  under  his  very  nose  con- 
cerned him  not  a  little.  Chef  possessed  alto- 
gether too  much  currency  that  had  once  be- 
longed to  that  lavish  tipper,  Mr.  Langham.  And 
Chef  did  not  wish  Mr.  Langham  to  be  driven 
from  the  kitchen  and  The  Camp.  He  wished 
Mr.  Langham  to  become  a  permanent  Darling 

309 


The  Seven  Darlings 

asset — like  himself  and  the  French  range.  And 
so,  half  singing,  half  speaking,  and  furiously 
bustling,  he  announced: 

"I'll  show  her  how  little  difference  she  makes. 
Without  advice  or  dictation,  practically  without 
supplies  of  any  kind,  I  shall  arrange,  nom  de  Dieu! 
a  luncheon  which,  for  pure  deliciousness,  will  not 
have  been  surpassed  during  the  entire  Christian 
era.  I  shall  hint  to  her  that  I  tolerate  her  in  my 
kitchen  because  I  have  known  her  since  she  was 
a  little  girl,  but  I  shall  make  it  clear  by  words 
and  deeds  that  her  presence  or  absence  is  not  of 
the  least  importance.  Let  her  then  turn  for  com- 
fort to  the  worthy,  generous,  and  rich  Mr.  Lang- 
ham,  for  whom  the  mere  poaching  of  an  egg  is  an 
exquisite  pleasure!" 

And  he  frowned  and  began  to  think  formidable 
and  inventive  thoughts  about  matters  connected 
with  his  craft  and  immediate  needs  and  neces- 
sities. 

Mary  Darling  had,  of  late,  often  imagined  her- 
self receiving  an  offer  of  marriage  from  Mr. 
Langham.  That  is  badly  expressed.  Only  the 
most  insufferable  and  self-sufficient  of  men  make 
offers  of  marriage.  Your  true,  modest,  and  chiv- 
alrous lover  gets  down  on  his  real  or  figurative 
knees  and  begs  and  beseeches.  She  had,  then, 

310 


The  Seven  Darlings 

often  imagined  her  hand  in  the  act  of  being  be- 
sought by  Mr.  Langham.  Being  a  practical  young 
woman,  she  had  pictured  this  as  happening  (re- 
peatedly) at  sunset,  by  moonlight,  in  the  depths 
of  romantic  forests  or  on  the  tops  of  romantic 
mountains.  And  some  voice  in  her  (some  very 
practical  voice)  told  her  that  it  never  should  have 
happened  in  a  kitchen. 

Mr.  Langham's  "sweet  beseeching,"  instead  of 
" moving  her  strangely,"  had  made  her  rather 
cross.  And  such  tenderness  as  she  usually  had 
for  him  had  fled  to  cover.  But  now,  as  the  clean, 
green  forest  closed  about  her,  she  had  a  reaction. 
She  came  to  a  dead  stop  and  realized  that  she  had 
been  through  an  emotional  crisis.  Her  heart  was 
beating  as  if  she  had  just  finished  a  steep,  swift 
climb.  And  her  heart  was  aching  too,  aching  for 
the  kind  and  gentle  friend  and  well-wisher  to 
whom  she  had  been  so  inexplicably  cold  and 
cutting.  It  was  in  vain  to  mourn  for  that  dia- 
mond of  a  heart  which  she  had  rejected  with  so 
much  finality.  He  had  said  that  he  would  never 
"bother"  her  again  (Bother  her  !  The  idea  !),  and 
he  never  would.  He  was  a  man  of  his  word,  Sam 
Langham  was.  Perhaps,  even  now  he  was  causing 
his  things  to  be  packed  with  a  view  to  leaving  The 
Camp  for  ever  and  a  day.  But  what  could  she 

3" 


The  Seven  Darlings 

do  ?  Could  she  go  to  him  (in  person  or  by  writing) 
and  in  his  presence  eat  as  much  as  a  single  mouth- 
ful of  humble-pie?  No,  she  could  not  possibly 
do  that.  Then,  what  could  she  do  ?  Well,  with 
the  usual  negligible  results,  she  could  cry  her  eyes 
out  over  the  spilt  milk. 

She  went  swiftly  forward,  the  shadows  dappling 
her  as  she  went,  and  her  heart  swelling  and  swell- 
ing with  self-pity  and  general  miserableness. 
Thoughts  of  Arthur  and  his  happiness  flashed 
through  her  mind.  The  thought  that  she,  Mary 
Darling,  unmarried,  would  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years  be  called  an  old  maid,  caused  her  a  panicky 
feeling.  She  pictured  herself  as  very  old  (and 
very  ugly),  exhibiting  improbable  Chinese  dogs  at 
dog-shows  and  scowling  at  rosy  babies.  And  I 
must  say  she  almost  laughed. 

The  path  turned  sharply  to  the  right  and  dis- 
closed to  Mary's  eyes  two  young  people  who 
stood  locked  in  each  other's  arms  and  rocked 
slightly  from  side  to  side — rocked  with  ineffable 
delight  and  tenderness. 

She  stood  stock-still,  in  plain  view  if  they  had 
looked  her  way,  until  presently  they  unlocked  arms, 
drew  a  little  apart,  and  had  a  good  long  look  at 
each  other,  and  then  turned  their  backs  upon  that 
part  of  the  forest  and  departed  slowly. 

312 


The  Seven  Darlings 

Whither  she  was  going,  Mary  did  not  know. 
But  she  went  very  swiftly  and  had  upon  her  face 
the  expression  of  a  beautiful  female  commuter 
who  has  arrived  at  the  station  just  in  time  to  see 
her  train  pull  out.  But  this  expression  changed 
when  she  found  her  path  blocked  by  the  diminu- 
tive house  in  which  Sam  Langham  lived,  and 
saw  Sam  Langham,  a  look  of  wonder  on  his  face, 
rise  from  his  big  piazza  chair  and  come  toward  her. 

"Lee  and  Renier  are  going  to  be  married," 
she  exclaimed,  all  out  of  breath,  "and  I  didn't 
mean  to  be  such  a  brute !  And  I  wouldn't  have 
hurt  you  for  anything  in  the  world !" 

Sam  Langham  only  looked  at  her,  for  he  was 
afraid  to  speak. 

"I'm  just  an  old  goose,"  said  Mary  humbly, 
but  very  bravely,  "and  I  take  everything  back. 
And  if  you  meant  what  you  said,  Sam,  and  want 
to  begin  all  over  again,  why,  don't  just  stand  there 
and  look  at  me." 

And  presently  she  was  ashamed  of  herself  for 
having  been  so  forward,  and  so  she  pursued  the 
feelings  of  shame  to  their  logical  conclusion  and 
hid  her  face. 

And  now,  for  the  first  time,  she  realized  how 
hard  she  had  worked  ever  since  The  Camp  was 
changed  into  an  inn  to  make  it  a  go,  and  how 


The  Seven  Darlings 

much  she  needed  rest  and  comforting  and  a 
masculine  executive  to  lean  on. 

"Who  said,"  murmured  the  ecstatic  Langham, 
"that  nothing  good  ever  came  of  liking  good 
things  to  eat  ? " 

"Sam,"  said  Mary,  "I'm  so  happy  I  don't  care 
if  lunch  is  burned  to  a  cinder." 

It  wasn't.  Out  of  odds  and  ends  of  raw 
materials,  and  great  slugs  and  gallons  of  culi- 
nary genius,  Chef  produced  a  lunch  that  tran- 
scended even  Mary's  and  Langham's  belief  in 
him. 

But  it  was  Arthur  who  insisted  that  champagne 
be  opened;  and  perhaps  the  champagne  made  the 
lunch  seem  even  more  delicious  than  it  really  was. 

Maud  and  Eve  had  already  discounted  Arthur's 
engagement  and  Lee's.  They  had  not,  it  is  true, 
learned  of  the  latter  without  feeling  that  if  they 
didn't  hurry  they  would  miss  their  train;  but 
they  had  disguised  and  fought  off  that  feeling 
until  now  they  were  their  gay  and  natural  selves. 
It  remained  for  Mr.  Langham  to  shock  them  sud- 
denly into  a  new  set  of  emotions. 

"I  should  be  obliged,"  said  he,  rising  to  his  feet, 
with  a  glass  of  champagne  in  his  hand,  "if  every- 
body would  drink  the  health  of  the  happiest  man 
present."  Arthur  and  Renier  looked  very  self- 


The  Seven  Darlings 

o 

conscious.  But  Mr.  Langham  concluded:  "And 
that  man  is  myself.  I  have  the  honor  to  announce 
that,  beyond  peradventure,  the  loveliest  and 
sweetest  girl  in  all  the  world — 

And  at  that  Mary  blushed  so  and  looked  so 
happy  and  beautiful  that  everybody  shouted  with 
joy  and  surprise  and  laughter,  and  drank  cham- 
pagne, and  tossed  compliments  about  like  shuttle- 
cocks. And  Arthur  and  Renier  and  Langham  had 
a  violent  dispute  as  to  which  was  the  happiest; 
and  decided  to  settle  the  dispute  with  sabres  at — 
twenty  paces. 

Her  first  burst  of  surprise  and  excitement  and 
pleasure  having  passed,  Eve  Darling  experienced 
a  sudden  sinking  feeling.  She  felt  as  if  all  the 
people  she  most  loved  to  be  with  were  going  away 
on  a  delightful  excursion  and  that  she  was  being 
left  behind.  It  was  at  this  moment,  while  the 
uproar  was  still  at  its  height,  that  she  heard  the 
shaken  voice  of  Mr.  Bob  Jonstone  in  her  ear. 

"How  about  us  ?"   he  demanded. 

"How  about  us — what?"   she  answered. 

Then  she  felt  her  hand  seized  and  held  in  the 
secret  asylum  furnished  by  the  table-cloth,  and 
there  stole  over  her  the  solaceful  feeling  of  having 
been  asked  at  the  last  moment  to  go  upon  the  de- 
lightful excursion. 


The  Seven  Darlings 
"Eve?" 

"Eve,  darling — is  it  all  right?" 

"All  right." 

And  then  up  shot  Mr.  Jonstone  like  a  projec- 
tile from  a  howitzer,  and  he  cried  aloud,  his  ha- 
bitual calmness  and  lazy  habit  of  speech  flung  to 
the  winds. 

"You're  not  the  only  happy  men  in  the  world," 
he  shouted.  "I'm  happier  than  the  three  of  you 
put  together,  I  am !  Because  my  Darling  is  the 
best  and  most  beautiful  of  all  Darlings,  and  if  any 
man  dares  to  gainsay  that,  let  him  just  step  out- 
side with  me  for  five  minutes — that's  all." 

Colonel  Meredith's  hair  bristled  like  the  mane 
of  a  fighting  terrier. 

"Do  you  mean  to  say,"  he  whispered  to  Maud 
in  a  sort  of  savage  whisper,  "that  I've  got  to 
swallow  that  insult  without  protest?" 

It  was  on  the  tip  of  Maud's  tongue  to  say  that 
she  didn't  know  what  he  meant.  But  how  could 
she  say  that  when  she  knew  perfectly  well? 

"Only  give  me  the  right  to  answer  him,"  con- 
tinued the  sincere  warrior.  He  rose  to  his  feet. 
"Is  it  yes — or  no  ?" 

"It's  yes — yes,"  exclaimed  Maud  and,  horrified 
with  herself,  she  leaned  back  blushing  and  full 
of  wonder. 

316 


The  Seven  Darlings 

"Mr.  Jonstone — Mr.  Bob — Jonstone!"  cried 
Colonel  Meredith. 

Mr.  Jonstone's  attention  was  presently  at- 
tracted, and  he  gave  his  cousin  a  glittering  look. 

"I'll  be  only  too  delighted  to  step  outside  with 
you  for  five  minutes,"  said  Colonel  Meredith. 

And  the  cousins  glared  and  glared  at  each 
other.  But  whether  or  not  they  were  really  in  ear- 
nest, if  only  for  a  moment,  will  never  be  known; 
at  any  rate,  each  of  them  appeared  suddenly  to 
perceive  something  comic  about  the  other,  and 
both  burst  into  peals  of  schoolboy  laughter. 

Only  Gay's  happiness  seemed  a  little  forced,  and 
her  mother's. 


317 


XXXV 

GAY  hardly  slept  at  all.  She  was  at  her 
window  half  the  night  asking  troubled  ques- 
tions of  the  stars  and  of  the  moon  and  of  the  moon- 
light on  the  lake.  She  had  not,  during  the  sum- 
mer, taken  her  sisters'  affairs  very  seriously, 
perhaps  because  she  was  so  seriously  engrossed 
with  her  own.  She  had,  even  in  her  heart,  almost 
accused  them  of  flirting  and  carrying  on  lest  time 
hang  heavy  on  their  hands.  Her  own  romance 
she  had  supposed  all  along  to  be  real,  the  others 
mere  reflections  of  romantic  places  and  situations. 
But  it  began  to  look  as  if  only  her  own  romance 
had  been  spurious.  It  was  a  long  time  since  she 
had  heard  from  Pritchard.  He  had  told  her  very 
simply  that  he  was  now  the  Earl  of  Merrivale,  and 
that,  as  soon  as  certain  things  were  settled  and 
arranged,  he  intended  to  return  to  America. 
After  that,  there  had  been  no  word  from  him  of 
any  kind.  She  tried  to  comfort  herself  with  the 
thought  that  if  he  was  that  kind  of  man — blow 
hot,  blow  cold — she  was  well  rid  of  him,  and  she 
failed  dismally. 


The  Seven  Darlings 

A  man  is  in  love  with  a  certain  girl.  He  learns 
that  she  is  vain,  gay,  extravagant,  heartless,  and 
going  to  marry  some  other  man.  Does  any  of  this 
comfort  him  ?  Not  if  he  is  in  love  with  her,  it 
doesn't.  Not  a  bit. 

So  Gay  could  say  to  herself:  "He's  thoughtless 
and  inconstant,  and  I'm  well  out  of  it!"  She 
could  say  that,  and  she  did  say  that,  and  then  she 
buried  her  face  in  her  pillow  and  cried  very  quietly 
and  very  hard. 

She  was  up  before  the  sun. 

It  would  have  taken  more  than  one  night  of 
wakefulness  and  weeping  to  leave  marks  upon  that 
lovely  face  which  sudden  cold  water  and  the  res- 
olution to  suffer  no  more  could  not  erase. 

But  she  had  not  rowed  a  mile  or  more  before 
the  color  in  her  cheeks  was  really  vivid  again  and 
the  whites  of  her  eyes  showed  no  traces  of  tears. 

She  did  not  know  why  she  was  rowing  or  whither. 
It  was  as  if  some  strong  hand  had  forced  her  from 
bed  before  sunrise,  forced  her  into  her  fishing- 
clothes,  forced  her  into  a  guide  boat,  placed  oars 
in  her  hands,  and  compelled  her  to  row. 

She  even  smiled,  wondering  where  she  was 
going. 

"I  can  go  anywhere  I  like,"  she  thought;  "but 
I  don't  want  to  go  anywhere  in  particular,  and  yet 


The  Seven  Darlings 

I  am  quite  obviously  on  my  way  to  somewhere  or 
other.  I'm  like  Alice  in  Wonderland.  I  think 
I'll  go  to  Carrytown  and  get  the  morning  mail." 

But  she  had  no  sooner  beached  toward  Carry- 
town  than  the  distance  there  seemed  unutterably 
long,  especially  for  a  rower  who  had  yet  to  break- 
fast. 

"I  know,"  thought  Gay  at  last;  "I'll  row  to 
Placid  Brook  and  see  if  the  big  trout  is  still  feed- 
ing in  his  private  preserve.  I'll  land  just  where 
we  did  before  and  cross  the  meadow  and  spy  on 
him  from  behind  a  bush.  I  wish  I'd  brought  some 
tackle.  I'd  like  to  catch  him  and  cook  him  for 
my  breakfast — so  I  would  !" 

Upon  this  resolution,  the  work  of  rowing  be- 
came very  light.  It  was  as  if  the  force  which  had 
started  her  upon  the  excursion  had  had  Placid 
Brook  in  mind  all  the  time. 

Having  laid  her  course  for  the  meadow  at  the 
mouth  of  Placid  Brook,  she  kept  the  stern  of  the 
boat  in  direct  line  with  a  distant  mountain-top, 
and  so  held  it.  The  sun  was  now  peeping  over 
the  rim  of  the  world,  and  here  and  there  morning 
breezes  were  darkening  and  dappling  the  bur- 
nished surface  of  the  lake. 

Now  and  then,  as  she  neared  the  meadow,  Gay 
glanced  over  her  shoulder,  once  for  quite  a  long 

320 


The  Seven  Darlings 

time,  resting  on  her  oars,  because  she  thought  she 
saw  a  doe  with  a  fawn.  They  turned  out  to  be 
nothing  more  tender  than  a  couple  of  granite 
rocks.  And  once  again  she  rested  on  her  oars 
and  looked  for  a  long  time — not  this  time  upon 
the  strength  of  a  hallucination,  but  of  an  im- 
pulse. 

She  followed  this  inconsequential '  act  with  a 
long  sigh,  and  enough  strokes  of  the  oar  to  bring 
her  to  land. 

When  she  stood  upright  on  the  meadow  she 
could  see  the  very  spot  from  which  Pritchard  had 
cast  for  the  big  trout.  And  she  saw  (and  had  a 
curious  dilating  of  the  heart  at  the  same  moment) 
that  that  particular  spot  of  meadow  was  once 
more  occupied  by  a  human  being — or  were  her 
eyes  and  her  breakfastless  stomach  playing  tricks  ? 

A  young  man  in  rusty  meadow-colored  clothes 
appeared  to  be  kneeling  with  his  back  toward  her. 
She  advanced  swiftly  toward  him,  curious  only  of 
a  great  wonder  and  an  indescribable  (and  possibly 
fatal)  beating  of  her  heart.  And  suddenly  she 
knew  that  her  man  was  real  and  no  hallucination, 
for  she  perceived  at  her  feet  the  stub  of  a  Turkish 
cigarette,  still  smoking.  Then  she  called  to  him: 

"Halloo,  there!" 

The  Earl  of  Merrivale  started  as  if  he  had  been 
321 


The  Seven  Darlings 

shot   at,   then   leaped  to  his  feet  and  turned  to-^ 
ward  her  with  a  cry  of  joy. 

"What  are  you  doing  here?"  he  cried. 

And  they  had  approached  to  within  touching 
distance  of  each  other. 

"I  don't  know,"  she  said.     "What  are  you?" 

"It  was  too  early  to  pay  calls,"  he  said,  "so  I 
thought  I'd  have  one  more  whack  at  the  big  char 
and  bring  him  to  you  for  a  present.  But  tell  me 
— does  our  bet  still  stand  ?" 

He  looked  at  her  so  tenderly  and  lovingly  and 
hopefully  that  she  hadn't  the  heart  to  be  anything 
but  tender  and  loving  herself. 

"The  bet  still  stands,"  she  said,  "if  you  win. 
I've  missed  you  terribly." 

"I  took  him,"  said  the  earl.  "I  was  just  weigh- 
ing him  when  you  called.  He  weighs  a  lot  more 
than  three  pounds.  So  I  win." 

"Yes,  you  win." 

"And  the  bet  still  stands  ?" 

She  nodded  happily. 

"And  you  won't  renege — you'll  pay?  You'll 
be  Countess  of  Merrivale  ?" 

"If  you  want  me  to  be,"  she  said  humbly. 

"If  I  want  you  to  be!" 

And  she  had  imagined  herself  so  often  in  his  arms 
that  she  was  not  now  surprised  or  troubled  to 
find  herself  there. 

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The  Seven  Darlings 

"I  was  so  unhappy,"  she  said;  "and  now  I'm 
so  happy." 

And  after  a  little  while  she  said : 

"I'd  like  to  see  him." 

Presently  they  stood  looking  down  at  the  great 
trout. 

"He's  done  a  lot  for  us,  hasn't  he?"  said  Gay. 
"He  was  the  beginning  of  things.  And  it  seems 
sort  of  a  pity 

"He's  still  breathing.  He'll  live  if  we  put  him 
back.  Shall  we?" 

"Yes,  please.  ' 

There  was  plenty  of  life  and  fight  in  the  old 
trout.  He  no  sooner  felt  that  water  was  some- 
where under  him  than  he  gave  a  triumphant, 
indignant  flop,  tore  himself  from  Merrivale's 
hands,  and  disappeared  with  a  splendid,  smack- 
ing splash. 

"Good  old  boy!"   laughed   Merrivale. 

"And  yet,"  said  Gay,  "it's  a  pity  that  we 
couldn't  take  him  back  to  camp  and  show  him  off. 
He  was  the  biggest  trout  I  ever  saw." 

"He  wasn't  a  trout,  dear,"  said  Merrivale; 
and  he  grinned  lovingly  at  her.  "He  was  a  char." 

"Of  course  he  was,"  said  Gay  humbly;  "I 
forgot." 


323 


XXXVI 

I  WISH  I  could  write  first,  "The  Seven  Darlings 
lived  happily  ever  afterward,"  and  then  the 
word  "Finis."  But  I  cannot  end  so  easily  and 
maintain  a  reputation  for  veracity.  They  can't 
have  lived  happily  afterward  until  they  are  dead 
— can  they  ?  At  the  moment  they  have  just 
closed  The  Camp  after  the  summer  and  scattered 
to  their  winter  homes;  that  is,  all  of  them  except 
Gay. 

The  Camp,  of  course,  is  no  longer  an  inn. 
They  run  it  on  joint  account  for  themselves  and 
for  their  friends.  And  they  have  delightful  times. 

Colonel  Meredith  has  built  a  tremendous  house 
on  his  ancestral  acres,  and  during  the  winter 
Arthur  and  his  wife,  the  Herrings,  the  Reniers, 
the  Jonstones,  and  the  Langhams  are  apt  to  make 
it  their  headquarters. 

Gay  and  her  young  man  were  to  have  visited 
the  Merediths  this  winter.  There  was  going  to  be 
a  united  family  effort  to  discover  the  buried  silver 
which  Mr.  Bob  Jonstone  sold  to  his  cousin,  but 
of  course  the  great  war  has  upset  this  excellent 


The  Seven  Darlings 

plan,  together  with  a  good  many  million  other 
plans,  even  more  excellent  and  important. 

The  Earl  of  Merrivale  is  fighting  somewhere 
in  the  wet  ditches — Gay  doesn't  know  exactly 
where.  She  herself,  a  red  cross  on  her  sleeve, 
is  with  one  of  the  field-hospitals,  working  like 
a  slave  to  save  life.  Because  her  husband  is 
an  Englishman,  she  didn't  think  that  she  could 
ever  be  kind  to  a  German  or  an  Austrian,  but 
that  turned  out  to  be  a  whopping  big  error  of 
judgment.  They  all  look  alike  to  her  now,  and 
her  heart  almost  breaks  over  them.  But  I  don't 
know  what  will  become  of  her  if  anything  happens 
to  Merrivale.  I  think  poor  little  Gay  would  just 
curl  up  and  die.  He  is  all  the  world  to  her,  just 
as  she  is  to  him. 

Well,  they  are  only  one  loving  couple  out  of  a 
good  many  hundred  thousands.  The  times  are 
too  momentous  to  follow  them  further  or  waste 
words  and  sympathy  on  them.  The  world  is 
thinking  in  big  figures,  not  in  units. 

Only  a  sentimentalist  here  and  there  regards  as 
more  important  than  empire  and  riches  the  little 
love-affairs  that  death  is  hourly  ending,  and  the 
little  babies  who  are  never  to  be  born. 


325 


JS.SOUTHER 


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